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# The conceptual grouping effect: Categories matter (and named categories matter more)

## Details

**Authors** Lupyan

**Year** 2008

**Publisher** Cognition

**Discipline** Cognitive Science

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.03.009) 
10.1016/j.cognition.2008.03.009

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To observe a bridge between Distinctions and Systems.

### What they found (results)

The overall result of his experiments was that the assignment of a label (or a Distinction) facilitated (Perspective) the grouping (Systemizing) and deeper understanding of concepts and ideas.

## Commentary

### In short

Provided as a prime, the label (a Distinguished identity) is, in effect, used by the respondent as a framing Perspective to more quickly identify the identities that will be grouped.

### In more detail

Lupyan, 2008 completed three experiments that allowed him to observe a bridge between Distinctions and Systems. The first experiment involved 21 students searching for a non-letter within a group of similarly shaped letters. Lupyan wrote that the finding that is “significant is that the present finding cannot be attributed to a difference in novelty between target and non-targets – since the target was always novel – supporting the interpretation that such effects have more to do with greater processing efficiency of familiar stimuli.” For the second experiment, 14 students (using the same stimuli as the first experiment) participated in a “speeded same/different judgement task.” This experiment showed that “perceptual warping was not the source of the conceptual grouping effect.” The purpose of the third experiment was to examine “the impact of verbal category labels on visual search.” The overall hypothesis was, “if conceptual categories affect visual processing online, then hearing a category name prior to the appearance of a search display may further modulate the degree to which visual representations are shaped by conceptual categories.” 28 students had to identify a letter within a group of other letters. For some trials, the object they were searching for was labelled (named, distinguished), and for others it was not. He found that assigning a label significantly reduced search times. The overall result of his experiments was that the assignment of a label (or a Distinction) facilitated (Perspective) the grouping (Systemizing) and deeper understanding of concepts and ideas. Provided as a prime, the label (a Distinguished identity) is, in effect, used by the respondent as a framing Perspective to more quickly identify the identities that will be grouped.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**How to cite this** Lupyan (2008). The conceptual grouping effect: Categories matter (and named categories matter more). Cognition.