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Are Redundant Labels Helpful during Category Learning? Replication of Lupyan, Rakison, & McClelland (2007)

by Caroline Kaicher, Ellen Markman, and Laura Gwilliams

Posted: April 30, 2026
Server: PsyArXiv
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/5e8mz_v1

Labels are often advantageous for category learning. However, this may not be true for children as they learn subordinate, fine-grained object categories. In preparation for future research on subordinate category learning in children, we aimed to refine a procedure investigating the label advantage during subordinate category learning in adults. Thus, we conducted an online replication of Experiment 2 from Lupyan, Rakison, & McClelland (2007), which compares category learning under an auditory or written label condition versus a no label and non-linguistic cue condition in adults. We failed to replicate the key result, that those who received labels learned the categories faster.

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