A Multiple Sorting Procedure for Studying Conceptual Systems

Many psychologists have emphasised that the ability to function in the world relates
closely to the ability to form categories and to construct systems of classification by
which nonidentical stimuli can be treated as equivalent (e.g., Miller 1956; Bruner
et aI, 1956; Rosch, 1977). As Smith and Medin (1981) have recently reiterated, if
we had to deal with objects, issues, behaviour, or feelings on the basis of each
unique example, then the effort involved would make intelligent existence virtually
impossible. Thus, an understanding of the categories people use and how they
assign concepts to those categories is one of the central clues to the understanding
of human behaviour. As consequence, one of the important questions for many
investigations is the nature and organisation of the concepts that people have,
specific to the issues being explored.