Fig. 2.

Conditions can be differently arranged in feature space. Shown are the values of four conditions on two feature dimensions. Each feature dimension is associated with a pattern component, which determines the mean activity pattern for each condition. (A) When all four conditions only differ on a single feature dimension, only one dimension in pattern space will be necessary to distinguish them. (B) If the conditions are randomly arranged in feature space, the second pattern component will contribute less to the distinguishability of the associated patterns than the first feature dimension. (C) If the conditions are evenly spaced, then each associated dimensions in pattern space will contribute equal amounts to the distinguishability of the conditions.