ABSTRACT
Categorization is basic to all our intellectual abilities (Estes 1994). It is the process of assigning objects (of whatever kind) to categories (which are collections of objects that are grouped together for some purpose). Contemporary theories provide excellent formal accounts of many aspects of categorization (e.g. Ashby 1992, Estes 1994, Medin & Schaffer 1978, Nosofsky 1986). However, most theories have little to say about the time course of categorization processes. Traditionally, experimental categorization research has been focused on the outcome of categorization processes, without paying too much attention to the details of the processes themselves. The theories that emerged from this tradition provide only a general characterization of these processes.
