This paper has two objectives. First, we will argue that the mutability of conceptual fea- tures can be represented as a single, multiple-valued dimension. We will show that the fea- tures of a concept can be reliably ordered with respect to the degree to which people are willing to transform the feature while retaining the integrity of a representation; i.e., that a number of conceptual tasks, all of which require people to transform conceptual features, produce similar orderings. Following Medin and Shoben (1988), these tasks have in common that they ask people to consider an object that is missing a feature but is otherwise intact (e.g., a real chair without a seat)

Abstract not found

Concepts lie at the heart of our mental life, supporting cognitive functions from language comprehension and production to reasoning, remembering and recognising objects. Therefore, the study of the representation and processing of conceptual knowledge has been a central activity across many disciplines, traditionally in the realm of philosophy, and more