Modeling Typicality: Extending the Prototype View

In this study we re-evaluated earlier findings that natural language categories are represented by an exemplar representation rather than by a prototype representation. Using a restricted prototype model, an exemplar model and a “flying” prototype model, we predicted typicality ratings for 11 natural language categories from 2 semantic domains, animals and artifacts. We showed that exemplar models outperform prototype models when the prototype is restricted to the average exemplar, but the opposite pattern emerged when the prototype was free to move.