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Squirrel/Rabbit Set
On a continuum of squirrel to rabbit, with a typical squirrel at 1,
a typical rabbit at 7, and something that looks halfway between them at 4,
please give a rating for each of these animals

Average of 16 adult ratings for each animal 
(standard deviation in parentheses)* 
     
Standard Squirrel
(children heard "this squirrel") 
Average Rating: 1.0 (0.0)
Typical Test Squirrel
(children heard "this squirrel" or "this one") 
Average Rating: 1.1 (0.25)
 Misleading Test Squirrel
(children heard "this rabbit" or "this one") 
Average Rating: 2.3 (0.86)
     
Standard Rabbit
(children heard "this rabbit") 
Average Rating: 6.7 (0.70)
Typical Test Rabbit
(children heard "this rabbit" or "this one") 
Average Rating: 6.4 (0.72) 
Misleading Test Rabbit
(children heard "this squirrel" or "this one") 
Average Rating: 5.2 (1.33)
 
As you can see, the standard squirrel and standard rabbit were rated as typical of their categories.  The typical test animals were also rated as fairly typical.  The two misleading animals were rated as less typical than the others, presumably because they were designed with some features of the opposite animal.  However, the misleading test squirrel was still rated as squirrel-like (significantly different from chance of 4.0, t(15)=-8.17, P<.001), and the misleading test rabbit was still rated as rabbit-like (significantly different from chance of 4.0, t(15)=3.58, P<.01).

* N.B.  Half of the adult raters made judgements on a reverse scale where a typical rabbit was 1 and a typical squirrel was 7. Results were standardized and are reported together. 
 
Introduction | Cat/Dog | Horse/Cow | Bear/Pig | Squirrel/Rabbit | Fish/Bird | Spoon/Key | Shoe/Car | Button/Ball | Toothbrush/Pen | Hat/Cup

Author: Vikram Jaswal (jaswal@psych.stanford.edu)
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~jaswal/Stimuli/index.html
Last modified: September 22, 2002