Perceptual category learning results in modality-specific representations

A longstanding debate in cognitive science centers around whether our internal representations of the external world are abstract and amodal or whether they are grounded by sensory modality. Perceptual category learning presents a unique testbed of this debate as categories exist within all sensory modalities, but most theories are focused only on learning in the visual modality. As a result, it is not yet clear how modality may influence the perceptual and cognitive processes supporting category learning. In two experiments and a pre-registered replication, we tested whether category learning results in amodal or modality-specific representations. We found that learners formed modality-specific representations with mixed evidence about whether representations were independent or competitive in nature depending on the training context. The results highlight the need to look beyond vision when constructing and testing models of category learning and of cognition more broadly.