Mounting evidence suggests that human category learning is
achieved by multiple qualitatively distinct biological and
psychological systems. In an information-integration (II)
categorization task, optimal performance requires switching
away from rule and adopting a procedural response strategy.
However, many participants perseverate with rules. This article
attempts at understanding the difference between optimal and
suboptimal participants in II categorization. To this end, we
collected data in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and an II
categorization task. Performance in the IGT was used to
estimate each participant’s sensitivity to reward, punishment,
and propensity to explore. The results show that optimal
participants in the II task explored more in the IGT than
suboptimal participants. However, optimal participants in the
II task did not show higher sensitivity to punishment or lower
sensitivity to reward. We conclude by discussing the
implications of these findings on system-switching and
theoretical work on multiple-systems model of perceptual
category learning.