The cognitive process of organizing stimuli, objects, or events into groups based on shared features, enabling efficient interpretation, prediction, and decision-making.
Neural: temporal cortex, inferior temporal gyrus, prefrontal cortex
Cognitive: feature comparison, similarity assessment, category boundary assignment
Behavioral: labeling objects, grouping items, applying category-based expectations
Seeing a new four-legged animal with fur and a wagging tail, a person quickly categorizes it as a “dog,” even without prior exposure to that specific breed.
Input Features → Similarity Evaluation → Category Assignment → Prediction/Inference