Research and theory on categorization and conceptual structure have recently undergone
two major shifts. The first shift is from the assumption that concepts have defining properties …

Reviews theories of concept structure proposed since the mid-1970s, when the discovery of
typicality effects led to the rejection of the view that instances of a concept share necessary …

In this chapter, the author notes that the intuitive idea that we put things into categories
because we find them similar appears to be non-controversial, if not circular. Cars are …

The relation between similarity and categorization has recently come under scrutiny from
several sectors. The issue provides an important inroad to questions about the contributions …

In order to answer the question of what makes a concept coherent (what makes its members
form a comprehensible class), accounts based on similarity, features correlations, and …

Comments on E. Smith and D. Medin's (1981) book Categories and Concepts in terms of the
problems they raise for the classical view of conceptual understanding, the role of concepts …

Many theories of concepts link categorizing to similarity. If a new instance is sufficiently
similar to category members, then the instance is likely to be a member itself. However …

This chapter is reprinted from chapter 7 of E. Smith and D. Medin's Categories and
Concepts, 1981. The exemplar view of concepts is explored. Topics covered include …

Obtained normative data from undergraduates for instances of 100 conceptual categories
different from those in the Connecticut category norms from a study by BH Cohen, WA …

Rips (1989) is one of the most widely cited demonstrations of the relevance of critical
features in conceptual structure. A critical feature will impose constraints on how an object is …