Comparing Natural and Abstract Categories: A Case Study from Computer Science

Are abstract and concrete objects categorized similarly? In studies of psychological categories of concrete objects, Rosch and her colleagues have documented two phenomena (Rosch, Mervis, Gray, Johnson, & BoyesBraem, 1976). They found a basic level of conceptual abstraction and a perception of categorical structure based on family resemblance. To parallel Rosch’s experiments, this article reports three studies of categories of abstract objects. Working within a Roschian experimental paradigm, we ask whether computer scientists identify a natural, basic level of abstraction similar to that found for concrete objects? We also ask whether these categories exhibit prototypicality and family resemblance characteristics? The question of whether abstract and concrete objects are similarly categorized is motivated by the results of Adelson (1981) which suggested that expert programmers chunk single lines of code into conceptual objects. Adelson asked novice and expert programmers to recall a set of 16 lines of programming code which had been presented in random order. Although