Similarity and structured representation in human and nonhuman apes

Hodgetts, Carl J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0339-2447, Close, James O.E. and Hahn, Ulrike 2023. Similarity and structured representation in human and nonhuman apes. Cognition 236 , 105419. 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105419

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Abstract

How we judge the similarity between objects in the world is connected ultimately to how we represent those objects. It has been argued extensively that object representations in humans are ‘structured’ in nature, meaning that both individual features and the relations between them can influence similarity. In contrast, popular models within comparative psychology assume that nonhuman species appreciate only surface-level, featural similarities. By applying psychological models of structural and featural similarity (from conjunctive feature models to Tversky's Contrast Model) to visual similarity judgements from adult humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas, we demonstrate a cross-species sensitivity to complex structural information, particularly for stimuli that combine colour and shape. These results shed new light on the representational complexity of nonhuman apes, and the fundamental limits of featural coding in explaining object representation and similarity, which emerge strikingly across both human and nonhuman species.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0010-0277
Funders:	This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the European Commission New and Emerging Science and Technology Scheme
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 June 2023
Date of Acceptance:	18 February 2023
Last Modified:	07 Jun 2023 08:07
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/160165

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