Alternative Models of Categorization: Toward a Contingent Processing Framework

Abstract

Widely different accounts of how people categorize new instances have been advanced in recent years. This article reviews these alternative formulations with a particular focus on the use of concrete category exemplars (from prior experience) as an alternative to category-defining rules and prototypes. It advances a contingent processing formulation that emphasizes the flexibility of the information processing system in its response to important contextual factors, and describes empirical procedures useful in identifying categorization processes.