title: Basic Category Usage in Vision Language Models
summary: The field of psychology has long recognized a basic level of categorization
  that humans use when labeling visual stimuli, a term coined by Rosch in 1976.
  This level of categorization has been found to be used most frequently, to have
  higher information density, and to aid in visual language tasks with priming in
  humans. Here, we investigate basic level categorization in two recently
  released, open-source vision-language models (VLMs). This paper demonstrates
  that Llama 3.2 Vision Instruct (11B) and Molmo 7B-D both prefer basic level
  categorization consistent with human behavior. Moreover, the models'
  preferences are consistent with nuanced human behaviors like the biological
  versus non-biological basic level effects and the well established expert basic
  level shift, further suggesting that VLMs acquire cognitive categorization
  behaviors from the human data on which they are trained.
paper_authors._id: 67d8f0fa53f713733d6c6b1c
paper_authors.name: Hunter Sawyer
paper_authors.status: admin_assigned
paper_authors.statusLastChangedAt: 2025-03-18T09:37:16.399Z
paper_authors._id: 6737d99b728a96aa64a2b00a
paper_authors.avatarUrl: https://cdn-avatars.huggingface.co/v1/production/uploads/no-auth/p3vMX0xkvL_4IpWwyURLM.png
paper_authors.fullname: Hunter Sawyer
paper_authors.type: user
paper_authors.user: HTSawyer
paper_authors._id: 67d8f0fa53f713733d6c6b1d
paper_authors.name: Jesse Roberts
paper_authors.status: extracted_pending
paper_authors.statusLastChangedAt: 2025-03-18T04:05:16.739Z
paper_authors._id: 63c19eb3a0ffa3857eae2efa
paper_authors.avatarUrl: https://cdn-avatars.huggingface.co/v1/production/uploads/63c19eb3a0ffa3857eae2efa/pB-CbPa1QFTImiHanNCxU.jpeg
paper_authors.fullname: Jesse Roberts
paper_authors.type: user
paper_authors.user: JesseTNRoberts
paper_authors._id: 67d8f0fa53f713733d6c6b1e
paper_authors.name: Kyle Moore
paper_authors.status: admin_assigned
paper_authors.statusLastChangedAt: 2025-03-18T09:37:25.148Z
paper_authors._id: 675ec603e4d6d0e820ad9d3f
paper_authors.avatarUrl: https://cdn-avatars.huggingface.co/v1/production/uploads/no-auth/ruPDRCZlcbDhZ6zp4xi_P.png
paper_authors.fullname: Olzhas
paper_authors.type: user
paper_authors.user: KyleMoore
paper_title: Basic Category Usage in Vision Language Models
paper_summary: The field of psychology has long recognized a basic level of categorization
  that humans use when labeling visual stimuli, a term coined by Rosch in 1976.
  This level of categorization has been found to be used most frequently, to have
  higher information density, and to aid in visual language tasks with priming in
  humans. Here, we investigate basic level categorization in two recently
  released, open-source vision-language models (VLMs). This paper demonstrates
  that Llama 3.2 Vision Instruct (11B) and Molmo 7B-D both prefer basic level
  categorization consistent with human behavior. Moreover, the models'
  preferences are consistent with nuanced human behaviors like the biological
  versus non-biological basic level effects and the well established expert basic
  level shift, further suggesting that VLMs acquire cognitive categorization
  behaviors from the human data on which they are trained.
paper_ai_summary: Recent vision-language models demonstrate a preference for basic level categorization consistent with human behavior, exhibiting nuances such as biological vs. non-biological distinctions and expert shifts.
paper_ai_keywords: basic level categorization vision-language models Llama 3.2 Vision Instruct Molmo 7B-D biological categorization non-biological categorization expert basic level shift