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Supervision, category structure, and selective attention in category learning: A comparative approach
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Supervision, category structure, and selective attention in category learning: A comparative approach

Hyungwook Yim, Leyre Castro, Jay I Myung, Edward A Wasserman and Vladimir M Sloutsky
Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983)
09/21/2026
DOI: 10.1037/com0000457
PMID: 42765970
url
https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000457View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

We investigated the interaction between supervision and category structure in visual categorization across two species that we assumed to have different abilities to selectively attend. Specifically, we compared humans and pigeons in a category learning task, in which the category structure (dense vs. sparse) and the level of supervision by corrective feedback (low vs. high) were manipulated. Results showed a benefit of supervision across species, which was particularly strong in learning the sparse categories. Moreover, both species benefited from category structures that had multiple category-relevant dimensions (i.e., dense categories). In addition, humans, who have a more advanced ability to attend selectively, showed faster learning and better generalization overall. Finally, attention was optimized to the category-relevant dimension in the sparse category only in humans. Subsequent computational simulation of the data indicated that these patterns were well explained by a parameter that controls the organism's ability to flexibly switch attention to category-relevant dimensions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
 category learning selective attention supervision category structure comparative cognition

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