Complete this sentence: In a categorisation task, selective attention to relevant dimensions...

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Consider the prompt: In a categorisation task, selective attention to relevant dimensions... Now evaluate each option to see which statement best completes this sentence.
Option 1: 'Results in the perception of greater difference on attended dimensions and a perception of smaller difference on unattended dimensions.' This aligns with findings from selective attention research in categorisation, where focusing on relevant features amplifies perceived differences along those dimensions while diminishing perceived differences along irrelevant ones. The concept is that attention enhances diagnostic cues and filters out noise, making attended features more salient. 
Option 2: 'Makes the categorisation task more difficult to learn.' While attention can influence learning, this claim is not a direct description of how selective attention modulates perception of differences; it’s more about difficulty, which isn’t the core effect described by selective attention to relevant dimensions in categorisation tasks. 
Option 3: 'Results in a perception of smaller difference on attended dimensions and a perception of greater difference on unattended dimensions.' This reverses the established pattern; if attention heightens processing of attended information, we would expect greater perceived differences on those dimensions, not smaller. It misstates the directional effect of attention. 
Option 4: 'Explains why some examples of a category are seen as more typical than others.' While attention can influence judgments of typicality by highlighting certain features, this option shifts the focus from perceptual differences to typicality judgments in a way that isn’t the direct canonical description of selective attention effects on dimension differences in categorisation tasks. It adds an explanatory layer but doesn’t capture the core perceptual consequence described in the sentence stem.
Overall, option 1 is the most accurate reflection of how selective attention to relevant dimensions changes perceived differences between stimuli, with attended dimensions appearing more discriminable and unattended ones less so. The other options either describe opposite, tangential, or less central consequences that do not match the primary effect of selective attention in this context.

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Complete this sentence: In a categorisation task, selective attention to relevant dimensions...

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