Abstract

The aim of the present study is twofold: Identifying the characteristics of "financial investments" category and investigating the role of expertise in the representation of the category. Seventeen different items of the category were selected and participants were asked to rate on a 7-point scale how typical each exemplar was. Three groups were employed: A group of students, a group of people who has invested own money at least once, and a group of bank clerks working in stock offices. The results show that the category does indeed have an internal structure with some elements being rated more central than others. In addition, expertise had a marked effect in that the internal structure of the category differs for the three groups.