Abstract: The present study is one of a series exploring the role of social categorization in intergroup behaviour. It has been found in our previous studies that in ‚minimal' situations, in which the subjects were categorized into groups on the basis of visual judgments they had made or of their esthetic preferences, they clearly discriminated against members of an outgroup although this gave them no personal advantage. However, in these previous studies division into groups was still made on the basis of certain criteria of ‚real' similarity between subjects who were assigned to the same category. Therefore, the present study established social categories on an explicitly random basis without any reference to any such real similarity. It was found that, as soon as the notion of ‚group' was introduced into the situation, the subjects still discriminated against those assigned to another random category. This discrimination was considerably more marked than the one based on a division of subjects in terms of interindividual similarities in which the notion of ‚group' was never explicitly introduced. In addition, it was found that fairness was also a determinant of the subjects' decisions. The results are discussed from the point of view of their relevance to a social-cognitive theory of intergroup behaviour.

Abstract: MOYNAHAN, EILEEN D. The Development of Knowledge concerning the Effect of Categorization upon Free Recall. CmiD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 238-246. First, third, and fifth graders predicted the relative ease of recalling sets of categorized items versus sets of noncategorized items. Third and fifth graders were significantly more likely than first graders to predict that the categorized sets would be easier to remember. Similar grade effects were obtained when the Ss' explanations were considered. Grade differences in predictions could not be attributed to the younger childrens' failure to detect the categories or to the facilitative effect of categorization on recall being any weaker for the younger children. Ss who had performed either an easier prediction task or a recall task involving the sets of categorized and noncategorized items before receiving the categorization-prediction task performed better on the categorizationprediction task than did Ss with no task experience before the categorization-prediction task. The effect of prior recall experience, however, was significant only when the explanation scores were considered. Prior experience seeing and naming the sets of categorized and noncategorized items had no effect on performance on the categorization-prediction task.

Abstract: The study considered whether Ss use the same strategies in categorizing biographical descriptions as in perceptual classifications. A biographical description consisted of a person’s age, income, number of children, and years of education. The Ss were asked to classify these descriptions as residents of two different suburbs in order to compare the results with a previous study using schematic faces. The 123 Ss were assigned to one of three alternative organizations of the descriptions: a table, a “name” organized paragraph in which each person was successively described, or an “attribute” organized paragraph in which each attribute was successively described. Essentially the same results were obtained for schematic faces and biographical descriptions, except for a few differences which were attributed to the use of more realistic categories (suburbs) in the present study. When more realistic categories are used, a S’s prior experience can influence which attributes he emphasizes and possibly his formation of an abstract prototype.

Abstract: DAVIS, ALBERT J., and LANGE, GARRETT. Parent-Child Communication and the Development of Categorization Styles in Preschool Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 624-629. Linguistic communication styles of 56 parents in interaction with their preschool children in storytelling and block-sorting tasks were studied, and relationships between these styles and children's categorization style preferences were examined. Parents conveyed proportionately more relational-contextual messages in both tasks, with descriptive messages increasing and categorical-inferential messages decreasing from the storytelling to the more structured blocksorting task. Correlational analyses pointed to the mother-father unit, rather than either parent considered singly, as a socializing agent for the development of descriptive categorizing styles in young children.

Abstract: Summary The hypothesis of this study was that measurable differences between broad and narrow categorizers in certain forms of learning would be obtained. Support for this hypothesis in the data from the present design was clearly evident. In the multiattribute learning task which was utilized, the broad categorizers were able to recall a significantly larger number of attributes than were the narrow categorizers, whereas the number of trials to criterion was virtually the same for each group. In sum, the learning task which provides opportunity for the utilization of varying quantities of input information, as in the multiattribute paired-associate task, appears to be subject to the influence of such variables as differences in category width. The data of this study suggest the possibility that individual differences in cognitive categorization may be consistently reflected in the person's preferred manner of orienting himself to, and processing, the stimuli presented by his world. The extent to which th...

Abstract: Because of the inconsistencies in the experimental procedures and approaches used by investigators, few generalizations regarding the influence of alcohol on performance can be advanced. An attempt is made to improve upon this situation in the present study by the application to the alcohol literature of a classification system or taxonomy of performance based upon human abilities. The effort was designed, in part, to categorize the existing literature into task groups in order to determine whether alcohol effects differ as a function of different types of tasks. Tasks were grouped together on the basis of the abilities required to perform the task. A preliminary set of abilities was chosen representing the cognitive, sensory-perceptual, and psychomotor domains. Classifying studies with similar abilities into groups or domains permit relations between alcohol and performance to be developed as a function of classes of tasks. While the primary classification is based upon human abilities, additional dimensions of classification were implemented so that research findings could be contrasted across such critical parameters as dosage and time. The results indicated that the curves relating performance to dosage differed as a function of the ability requirements of the task. Further, the effects on performance of length of testing period and time between alcohol administration and the initiation of testing were marked and depended upon the abilities required by the task. In each case, different functional relationships were evident. Despite differences among the specific tasks in terms of displays, response requirements, performance index, technique of alochol administration, etc., the categorization of tasks according to ability requirements enabled an integration of results and the development of functional relationships which otherwise were obscured.

Abstract: THE Byrne (1961; Byme, Barry, and Nelson, 1963) RepressionSensitization (R-S) scale was designed to measure behaviors associated with the avoidance of threatening stimuli at the low scoring pole and the approach to threatening stimuli at the high scoring pole. Byrne (1964) has cited consistent support for the relationship between the R-S scale and defensive style with the repression and sensitization categories to be viewed as homogeneous groupings of individuals lying at the extremes of a continuum of psychological defense.

Abstract: Two polygons at each of 3 levels of association value (AV) were used to produce 72 variants with 2 different units of perturbation (dissimilarity to the original) and a varying number of perturbations (1 to 6) per form. More correct categorizations were observed for patterns with the smaller unit of perturbation and also for those with the highest level of AV (p < .01). Generalization gradients evaluating the frequency of correct categorizations against an increasing number of perturbations were sharpest for the larger unit of distortion (p < .01), and no systematic differences in gradient due to association value were evident. Results were interpreted as stressing the importance of association value and constraint metrics for categorization tasks.

Abstract: Most studies examining longer-term memory have used words and concepts without question. Because words and concepts have many previous associations, nonsense syllables were used to ascertain more clearly whether categories in longer-term memory exist independently of an associative base.

Abstract: An attempt was made to increase patients recall of what their doctor has told them by explicitly organizing the material presented to them. The results of 2 experiments with a volunteer sample of 20 undergraduate arts and science students and a sample of 40 patients attending evening surgeries in a lower working-class general practice showed that recall of medical information can be increased by the use of explicit categorization. In the 1st experiment where subjects received 15 statements to remember recall of material was increased by almost 50% as a result of categorization. In the 2nd experiment recall of an average of 7 or so statements was increased by about 25%. The difference in improvement might be because of the difference in the amount of material presented the differences between real-life and laboratory learning or the subject differences. In sum in both cases recall was significantly improved by categorization.

Abstract: Categorization of sound patterns and of objects and events in the real world is basic to learning a language. This thesis was developed by Brown (1956) who termed first language learning "a process of cognitive socialization" involving "the coordination of speech cate gories with categories of the nonlinguistic world [p. 247]." More recently, Lenneberg (1967) has argued that categorization must be the basic cognitive process: "Thus categorization by a principle, or the formation of an (abstract) concept is apparently prior to and more primitive than the association of a sound pattern with a specific sensory experience." And, "the abstractness underlying meanings in general ... may best be understood by considering concept-formation the primary cognitive process, and naming (as well as acquiring a name) the secondary cognitive process. Concepts . . . are not so much the product of man's cognition, but conceptualization is the cognitive process itself [pp. 332-333, italics in the original]." In this view, both differentiation and "interrelating of categories or the perception of and tolerance for transformations" derive from the basic mode of organization which is categorization. Thus, for Lenne berg, words tag cognitive processes and it is words that make these processes seem more static than they actually are. The difference between Brown's (1956) view and Lenneberg's lies in the distinction between categories that exist ready-made in the world outside the child (linguistic and nonlinguistic) and cate gories generated by the child himself. Essentially this is the distinc