RECOGNITION AND CATEGORIZATION OF BUTTERF LY PATTERNS

Two experiments are reported which deal with the nature of categorizat ion of visual patterns. Stimulus materials were schematic butterfly pa tterns. Systematic transformations of five physical features (fore win g, hind wing, size, body length and color) were applied to a prototype to generate a set of instances. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to judge the visual similarity between each instance and the prototype . Similarity ratings were found to be related to an each instance's tr ansformational distance from the prototype. In Experiment 2, subjects were exposed to a subset of instances of the pattern which varied in t heir transformational distance from the prototype, and then given a re cognition test with confidence ratings. The recognition item consisted of the old and new instances including the prototype. Recognition rat ings were found to be related to each instance's family resemblance sc ore rather than its transformational distance and subjective similarit y to the prototype. These results support Rosch and Mervis's family re semblance model of categorization.