Chapter 3 Concept Formation Perceptual Concepts o Herrnstein and Loveland showed that pigeons can quickly learn to sort color slides showing similar natural scenes according to higher order concept human being 3 common models of categorization o Exemplar Model Intact stimuli is stored as exemplars examples in memory Classification recognition is determined by degree of similarity between the stimulus and stored exemplars Simple generalization effects explain correct classification of novel previously unseen instances of categories o Feature Learning Model Species are equipt to learn categories based on whether objects share some set of features Studies like that of Cerella show that pigeons often fail to learn to discriminate rearranged objects composed of the same features No predicted by exemplar model but consistent with a o Prototype model feature learning model Categorization is the acquisition of a prototype average of exemplars through abstraction process In humans performance can be better on prototype than on any learned exemplars Pigeons appear unable to abstract prototypes in this manner but many form ptotypes through simple learning rules and generalization Hangg categorization learning in horses Reasoning about Visual Objects Generalize YES o Sally Boysen Ohio State University o Models of a room guide an adult chimpanzee s search in the real room o Adult chimpanzees seem to be able to understand this problem but juvenile chimpanzees generally can not Paya Video Elephant Paintings o Rescued elephants in Thailand and zoo elephants elsewhere o Trained about a month before performing Elephant selection how to hold a brush and apply paint drop brush down to get a new color training may include learning specific motions o Painting is considered enrichment o Paintings often sold to support zoos or rescue programs o Great apes can t make anything representational o Is this a hoax What s behind elephant s painting behavior Memorized movements Do they understand what they are painting Elephants are red green color blind but the green is a different brightness Elephants show mirror self recognition Relational Concepts o E A Wasserman simultaneous same different discriminations o 16x1 8x2 4x4 2x8 o Visual display variability was the key controlling dimension in pigeons discrimination of same from different displays Entropy and accounts for pigeons choices measure amount of variety or diversity in a category o Respond to how many features