[Recognition and categorization of butterfly patterns].

ABSTRACT

Two experiments are reported which deal with the nature of categorization of visual patterns. Stimulus materials were schematic butterfly patterns. Systematic transformations of five physical features (fore wing, 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 transformational distance from the prototype. In Experiment 2, subjects were exposed to a subset of instances of the pattern which varied in their transformational distance from the prototype, and then given a recognition test with confidence ratings. The recognition item consisted of the old and new instances including the prototype. Recognition ratings were found to be related to each instance's family resemblance score rather than its transformational distance and subjective similarity to the prototype. These results support Rosch and Mervis's family resemblance model of categorization.