Naturally-formed objects categorized as artifacts:Effect of objects' functional depictions  

作　　者：SUN YuHao WANG Zhe LIU Ye FU XiaoLan 

机构地区：[1]Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China [2]State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

出　　处：《Chinese Science Bulletin》2010年第4期398-402,共5页

基　　金：supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB303101);National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 90820305, 30700233 and 30900398);Young Scientists Fund, Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sci-ences (Grant No. 07CX132013)

摘　　要：Past research has identified a variety of factors that influence cognitive processing of artifact concepts, but few experiments tested possible interactive patterns among these factors. Using a natural language depiction based free naming task, we explored how an object's function and its history (information about how an object was formed by natural force) interact to affect categorization judgment in a 2×2 betweensubjects experiment (N = 169). The study had two key findings: (i) Without presenting an object's function, presenting the history of its natural formation increased subjects' tendency to name the object under the "natural" domain and decreased their tendency to name it under the "artifact" domain; (ii) once we presented the depiction of an object's function, the effect of history presentation on categorization disappeared:Subjects in both conditions strongly preferred naming objects as artifacts. In summary, presenting depiction of an object's function inhibited the effect of history on object categorization. Current findings suggest that an object's function plays a fundamental role in the cognitive processing of artifact concepts.Past research has identified a variety of factors that influence cognitive processing of artifact concepts, but few experiments tested possible interactive patterns among these factors. Using a natural language depiction based free naming task, we explored how an object＇s fimction and its history （information about how an object was formed by natural force） interact to affect categorization judgment in a 2×2 betweensubjects experiment （N = 169）. The study had two key findings： （i） Without presenting an object＇s function, presenting the history of its natural formation increased subjects＇ tendency to name the object under the ＂natural＂ domain and decreased their tendency to name it under the ＂artifact＂ domain; （ii） once we presented the depiction of an object＇s function, the effect of history presentation on categorization disappeared： Subjects in both conditions strongly preferred naming objects as artifacts. In summary, presenting depiction of an object＇s function inhibited the effect of history on object categorization. Current findings suggest that an object＇s function plays a fundamental role in the cognitive processing of artifact concepts.

关 键 词：自然形成 文物 物体 描绘 对象分类 实验测试 工件加工 自然语言 

分 类 号：O31[理学—一般力学与力学基础] S688.1[理学—力学]