This document presents a new model of categorization called Categorization by Elimination (CBE). CBE uses as few cues or features as necessary to make an accurate category assignment, unlike most existing models which use all available cues. CBE orders cues by validity and uses them sequentially, eliminating potential categories after each cue is considered until only one category remains. The authors show that CBE performs as well as humans and other algorithms on categorization tasks while using fewer cues, making it a parsimonious psychological model of fast and frugal categorization.
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