A combinatorial set of 3,125 cartoon characters based on five attributes for research on categorization, judgment, decision-making, and memory with adults and children.

Abstract

A combinatorial set of pictorial stimuli generated from five five-valued attributes is presented (and shared freely under the CC BY-NC-ND license, https://osf.io/dq2k8 ) which can be used in various cognitive research areas like categorization, multiple cue probability learning, judgment, decision-making, memory, or metamemory. The stimuli consist of five different cartoon characters combined with four five-valued attributes, namely five different hats, shoes, equipment, and jackets. The characters were created in a way to make them suitable for research with children and adults alike. In four studies, we assessed the similarity structure and attribute salience via similarity judgments (Study 1) and validated the extracted attribute salience in a judgment task (Study 2) and the similarity in a recognition memory task with adults (Study 3) and 6- to 8-year-old children (Study 4). Obtaining a random sample of 12,251 similarity ratings from 51 online participants in Study 1 allowed us to quantify the salience of attributes by analyzing perceived similarity via multilevel regression. We provide similarity values extrapolated from the regression model for all 4,881,152 stimulus pairs to allow for similarity-controlled stimulus selection. Study 2 validated the salience estimates for all attributes by showing their influence on learning speed and accuracy in a cue learning paradigm. Study 3 demonstrated the validity of the extrapolated similarity values by showing their impact on recognition performance, and Study 4 showed the suitability of the stimuli for research on children.