Putting prototypes in place

Abstract

It has recently been proposed that natural concepts are those represented by the cells of an optimally partitioned similarity space. In this proposal, optimal partitioning has been defined in terms of rational design criteria, criteria that a good engineer would adopt if asked to develop a conceptual system. It has been argued, for instance, that convexity should rank high among such criteria. Other criteria concern the possibility of placing prototypes such that they are both similar to the items they represent-each prototype ought to be representative-and dissimilar to each other: the prototypes ought to be contrastive. Parts of this design proposal are already supported by evidence. This paper reports results of a new study meant to address parts still lacking in empirical support. In particular, it presents data concerning color similarity space which indicate that color prototypes are indeed located such that they trade off optimally between being representative and being contrastive.

Keywords: Color; Concepts; Design criteria; Naturalness; Prototypes; Similarity spaces.