The effect of spatial distance between objects on categorization level

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Iris K. Schneider - , University of Cologne (Author)
  • André Mattes - , University of Cologne (Author)

Abstract

We show that spatial distance between two objects influences how people categorize these objects. We report three (two pre-registered) experiments that show that when objects are presented close together (proximal), they are more likely to be categorized in a superordinate category than when they are presented further apart (distant). In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants provided spontaneous category labels in an open response format. In Experiment 2, we asked participants to indicate their preference for either of two category labels. We found that when objects were close together, they were categorized more often into superordinate categories than when objects were far apart (Experiments 1A and 2). Our findings demonstrate that the categorization of objects is, in part, determined by where they are in relation to other objects.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)230–242
Number of pages13
JournalPsychonomic bulletin & review
Volume29
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2022
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85111872234

Keywords

Library keywords