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Cognitive psychology of human memory (thesaurus)

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Concept information

phenomenon > memory phenomenon > category size effect

Preferred term

category size effect  

Definition

  • Decision time in a sentence verification task is shorter when the sentence is about a member of a smaller semantic category (e.g. a canary is a bird) compared to a larger category (e.g. a canary is an animal).

Broader concept

Belongs to group

Bibliographic citation(s)

  • • Collins, A. M., & Quillian, M. R. (1970). Does category size affect categorization time? Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 9(4), 432–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(70)80084-6

    [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed]

Creator

  • Frank Arnould

Has study method(s)

Editorial note

  • Suppose that the following two sentences are to be verified: 1. The canary is a bird; 2. The canary is an animal. The decision time is shorter for the first sentence: the Bird category is less extensive than the Animal category. There are cases where the reaction time is shorter when the decision concerns the membership of a larger category: the reversal category size effect.

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URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-Z65L5PQD-M

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