On the Nature of Categories

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the general taxonomy of category types, which is specifically directed toward the dichotomy of categories into ill-defined and well-defined types. The proposed taxonomy of category types allows results to be summarized and interpretative discrepancies to be isolated. The proposed taxonomy may also help systematize important findings from diverse areas that are essentially concerned with categorical problems, for example, medical diagnostics and the acquisition of finite-state grammars. The acquisition and utilization of conceptual information may be broadly conceived as the problems in sampling theory in which an organism attempts to comprehend the meaning of a category by sampling its members from the category domain. The chapter emphasizes on learning variables and the critical role they play in the shaping and modification of concepts. A number of recent findings in diverse categorical areas are presented in the chapter in which it is shown that variable manipulations critically determine the interpretation.