Many animals share similar features (i.e. legs, eyes, etc). Artifacts on the other hand do not share as many (they are more variable. This has led researchers to the posit that the reason some people have trouble identifying different animal related categories is because they share many features.

Crowding

Living things are identified using sensory objects and artifacts by functions. This leads to the conclusion that our ability to differentiate artifacts and living things comes from our semantic memory (which has a system for distinguishing sensory attributes and another for functions).

Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis

Categories have a distributed representation which take into account many features which determine how concepts are divided up within them.

Multiple factor approach

There are specific neural circuits in the brain for certain categories. These neural circuits are innately determined based on how they helped survival.

Semantic category approach 

- Crowding
- Multiple factor approach
- Semantic Category approach
- Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

One way to categorize things is to separate them into artifacts (non-living) and living things.

Artifacts and Living things

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Non-living things such as furniture and tools.

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