Featuring familiarity: how a familiar feature instantiation influences categorization.

We demonstrate that a familiar looking feature can influence categorization through 2 different routes, depending on whether a person is reliant on abstract feature representations or on concrete feature representations. In 2 experiments, trained participants categorized new category members in a 3-step procedure: Participants made an initial categorization, described the rule-consistent features indicated by the experimenter, and then recategorized the item. Critical was what happened on the second categorization after participants initially categorized an item based on a familiar, but misleading, feature. Participants who were reliant on abstract features most commonly reversed themselves after the rule-consistent features were pointed out, suggesting that the familiar feature had biased attention. Participants who were reliant on concrete feature representations, however, most commonly persisted with the initial response as if the familiar feature were more important than its rivals-the familiar feature biased decision making.