Phone: (412) 268-8656
Email: fisher49@andrew.cmu.edu

Ph.D., The Ohio State University

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on the development of categorization, inductive generalization, and deliberate selective attention. All of these are fundamental cognitive abilities, however their mechanisms early in development are not well understood at present. My research program consists of several theoretically inter-related projects aimed at uncovering these mechanisms. In particular, I am interested in (1) understanding how linguistic, perceptual, and conceptual information affects categorization and induction, and how the importance of each of these sources of information changes in the course of learning and development; (2) understanding the relationship between inductive generalization, categorization, and recognition memory in young children and adults; and (3) understanding mechanisms and developmental course of deliberate selective attention in relation to categorization and induction.

Development of Induction
The ability to generalize is crucial for acquiring new knowledge. For example, when one learns that a pet poodle Fluffy uses enzymes to digest food, one might generalize this property to other pet poodles, dogs of other breeds, other canines, and maybe even to other mammals. Even young children can perform such generalizations; however it is still unclear what drives induction early in development. What is the role of perceptual similarity and categorical relatedness? What is the role of linguistic labels? Do mechanisms of induction change with learning and development? Do mechanisms of induction differ across domains? For example, would generalization about poodles be any different from generalization about chairs? These are some of the questions I address in my research in order to improve our understanding of this fundamental process.

Relationship between Induction and Recognition Memory
More insights can be gained from people’s inductive generalizations when induction tasks are followed-up by memory tasks probing the nature of encoding during induction. For example, one should be successful at discriminating between presented and non-presented items on a recognition memory task if one relied on perceptual information during a preceding induction task. At the same time, if one relied on category-level information to perform induction, discriminating between presented and non-presented items on a memory task might prove difficult. Would older participants be more likely to rely on category-level information during induction than younger participants? Can younger participants be trained to rely on category-level rather than on item-specific information during induction? Conversely, can adults be led to rely on item-specific information? Are conceptual or attentional factors central to the success of training at different points in development? Does categorization distort our memories? This line of research is aimed at obtaining answers to these questions and improving our understanding of the mechanisms of induction at different points in development, as well as understanding of the relationship between the processes of induction, categorization, and recognition.

Development of Deliberate Selective Attention
Some theories posit that many fundamental cognitive achievements, such as word learning, categorization, and induction, are possible because there exist innate or early developing constraints on learning. These constraints guide young children to focus on the relevant information in the environment while ignoring multiple irrelevant cues. One of the implicit assumptions this view is based on, is an assumption that deliberate selective attention is sufficiently developed to make it possible for young children to attend to some stimuli dimensions while ignoring the others. This line of research is aimed at (1) examining whether this assumption is justified with regards to very young children, and (2) at mapping out the developmental course of deliberate selective attention.

Recent Publications

• Fisher AF, Sloutsky VM: When induction meets memory: Evidence for gradual transition from similarity-based to category-based induction. Child Development.
• Sloutsky VM, Fisher AV: Similarity, induction, naming, and categorization (SINC): Generalization or verbal inductive reasoning? Response to Heit and Hayes. J Exp Psychol: Gen 134: 606-611, 2005.
• Sloutsky VM, Fisher AV:, V. M., & Fisher, A. V. Induction and categorization in young children: A similarity-based model. J Exp Psychol: Gen 133 (2): 166–188, 2004.
• Sloutsky VM, Fisher AV: When development and learning decrease memory: Evidence against category-based induction in children. Psychol Sci 15 (8): 553–558, 2004.
• Sloutsky VM, Lo Y-F, Fisher AV: How much does a shared name make things similar: Linguistic labels and the development of inductive inference. Child Development 72: 1695-1709, 2001.