Classification response times in probabilistic rule- based category structures: Contrasting exemplar- retrieval and decision-boundary models

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to contrast the predictions from exemplar models and rule-based decision- boundary models of perceptual classification. Observers classified multidimensional stimuli into categories that could be described in terms of easily verbalized logical rules. The critical manipulation was that some pairs of stimuli received probabilistic feedback, whereas other control pairs received deterministic feedback. Despite the probabilistic feedback, the probabilistic pairs and the deterministic pairs were the same distance from ideal- observer, rule-based decision boundaries. Across two experiments with varying category structures, observers classified the probabilistic pairs with..