However, interim tests interspersed throughout learning showed prototype and exemplar representations across distinct brain regions that aligned with previous studies: prototypes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior hippocampus and exemplars in inferior frontal gyrus and lateral parietal cortex.
We found only prototype correlates during the final test. We designed a categorization task to promote both exemplar and prototype representations and tracked their formation across learning. Presently, we asked whether it is possible for multiple types of category representations to exist within a single task. Neuroimaging studies have shown neural evidence for either exemplar representations or prototype representations, but not both. There is a long-standing debate about whether categories are represented by individual category members (exemplars) or by the central tendency abstracted from individual members (prototypes).
