300045 VO Human concept formation and animal categorization (2009W)

In order to investigate the roots of our own cognitive capacities, categorization abilities found in humans and animals are considered in a comparative way. In which respects do they correspond, and where do we find inter-species differences? First, some important preconditions of categorization are discussed (representation, principles of object recognition such as global/local processing, similarity etc., discrimination, generalization, abstraction). Then, various aspects of categorization in humans and animals are considered. The different models of categorization are portrayed and evaluated by means of experimental evidence.