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Science 11 September 1987:
Vol. 237. no. 4820, pp. 1317 - 1323
DOI: 10.1126/science.3629243
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Articles

Science, Vol 237, Issue 4820, 1317-1323
Copyright © 1987 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Toward a universal law of generalization for psychological science

RN Shepard

A psychological space is established for any set of stimuli by determining metric distances between the stimuli such that the probability that a response learned to any stimulus will generalize to any other is an invariant monotonic function of the distance between them. To a good approximation, this probability of generalization (i) decays exponentially with this distance, and (ii) does so in accordance with one of two metrics, depending on the relation between the dimensions along which the stimuli vary. These empirical regularities are mathematically derivable from universal principles of natural kinds and probabilistic geometry that may, through evolutionary internalization, tend to govern the behaviors of all sentient organisms.


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