The Effect of Verbal and Non-verbal Labels for the Cues in Probabilistic Category Learning

Recent research shows that speakers of most languages find smells difficult to abstract and name. Can verbal labels enhance the human capacity to learn smell categories? Few studies have examined how verbal labeling might affect non-visual cognitive processes, and thus far very little is known about word-assisted odor category learning. To address these gaps, we tested whether different types of training change learning gains in odor categorization. After four intensive days of training to categorize odors that were co-presented with arbitrary verbal labels, people who learned odor categories with odor-label pairs that were more consistent were significantly more accurate than people with the same perceptual experience but who had odor-label pairs that were less consistent. Both groups’ accuracy scores improved, but the learning curves differed. The context of consistent linguistic cuing supported a steady increase in correct responses from the onset of training. However, inconsistent linguistic cuing delayed the start of approximating to target odor categorization. These results show that associations formed between odors and novel verbal labels facilitate the formation of odor categories. We interpret this as showing a causal link between language and olfactory perceptual processing in supporting categorization.

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Does vocabulary help structure the mind?

10.31234/osf.io/b74u9 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Gary Lupyan ◽

Martin Zettersten

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Category Learning ◽

Conceptual Structure ◽

Geometric Reasoning ◽

Conceptual Content ◽

Verbal Labels ◽

Experimental Findings ◽

The Mind ◽

Widespread View

Does language reflect the categories of our mind or does it help create them? On one widespread view (cognitive priority), learning a language involves mapping words onto pre-existing categories, leaving little room for language to change the structure of conceptual content. On another view (linguistic priority), conceptual structure is shaped by experience with and use of language. We argue for the latter perspective and present experimental findings showing that nameability – the ease with which a feature can be named – influences problem-solving, category learning, and geometric reasoning. Even subtle manipulations affecting the availability of verbal labels can impact the categories people discover and use. Words do not simply reflect joints of nature, but are used to flexibly carve joints into nature.

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Finding categories through words: More nameable features improve category learning

10.31234/osf.io/uz2m9 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Martin Zettersten ◽

Gary Lupyan

Keyword(s):

Category Learning ◽

Conceptual Development ◽

Structure Constant ◽

Category Structure ◽

Visual Features ◽

The Novel ◽

Linguistic Differences ◽

Hypothesis Formation ◽

Verbal Labels ◽

Cognitive Consequences

What are the cognitive consequences of having a name for something? Having a word for a feature makes it easier to communicate about a set of exemplars belonging to the same category (e.g., “the red things”) - might it make it easier to learn the category itself? Here, we provide evidence that the ease of learning category distinctions based on simple visual features is predicted from the ease of naming those features. Across seven experiments, participants learned categories composed of colors or shapes that were either easy or more difficult to name in English. Holding the category structure constant, when the underlying features of the category were easy to name, participants were faster and more accurate in learning the novel category. These results suggest that compact verbal labels may facilitate hypothesis formation during learning: it is easier to pose the hypothesis “it is about redness” than “it is about that pinkish-purplish color”. Our results have consequences for understanding how developmental and cross-linguistic differences in a language’s vocabulary affect category learning and conceptual development.

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