10-11: Conceptual Development

Question 1

concepts

Answer 1

• Mental representations that group entities together on the basis of some similarity
• Concepts govern how we think about things
• How we form a mental representation of something

Question 2

what do concepts do for our thinking

Answer 2

• organize our experience
• allow learning of regularities about the world
• allow generalization and prediction

Question 3

how are concepts and categories related

Answer 3

• categories: groups of objects in the world (cats)
• concepts: how our minds represent and think about categories (how do we think it means to be a member of the category cat: furry, meows)

Question 4

why do concepts matter

Answer 4

• Allow inferences and predictions )
• Put our experience to work for us and save us tremendous mental effort
• help us make sense and understand

Question 5

what doe we have concepts of ?

Answer 5

• almost everything

- events, actives, scientific entities (atom), people, observable entities (objects), abstract entities (truth)

Question 6

3 commonly studies types of concepts

Answer 6

1. natural kinds
2. artifacts
3. social categories

Question 7

natural kinds

Answer 7

• Biological or geological entities, like
• Naturally-occurring
• Discovered rather than invented/created
• Category members share many external and internal characteristics

EX: People, plants, animals, rocks, clouds , mountains

Question 8

artifacts

Answer 8

• Human-created objects, like cars, tools, and furniture
• members share perceptual and functional characteristics
• Ex: a cup is a cup b/c I drink from it, not by its shape, size, or what is made of
• based on functions

Question 9

social groups

Answer 9

• Categories of people
• members share some perceptual and (in some cases) biological characteristics

-Ex: members of a football team
○ Athletic
○ Tall
Muscular

Question 10

how are concepts represented in our minds ? 3 ways

Answer 10

1. Defining-Features Representations
2. Probabilistic Representations
3. Theory-Based Representations

Question 11

defining features

Answer 11

-concept consists of a set of features that define membership

• individually necessary: MUST have feature
• jointly sufficient : ENOUGH to confirm entity

ex: concept of bachelor

Question 12

the concept of mother : female , has a child is an example of ?

Answer 12

defining features

Question 13

Problems with Defining-Features

Answer 13

• Difficult to come up with defining features for all concepts (time)
• Typical examples may seem like they have certain defining features, but those features may not apply to less typical members
• E.g., typical ‘birds’ fly, but not ALL birds fly

Question 14

probabilistic representations

Answer 14

• concepts have a 􏰇family resemblance􏰈 structure
• Members resemble each other to varying degrees and in varying ways, but there is no set of features that all of them possess

Question 15

how does probabilistic representations differ from defining features

Answer 15

• no feature is necessary or sufficient
• Features have different weights or “strengths” defined as cue validities
• These cue validities are what make certain exemplars of concepts more typical or atypical in our minds

Question 16

what issue with defining features is probabilistic representations trying to solve?

Answer 16

Features have cue validities, meaning that some features, although not necessary or
sufficient, are more frequently associated with examples of the concept than others.

-addresses the issues of typical and atypical exemplars in our minds

Question 17

problem with probabilistic representations

Answer 17

Features can have equal cue validity across concepts, yet a given feature may be much more important for one concept over another.

• ignores the extensive casual knowledge people have about thee features of a category
• Does not properly account for the beliefs and expectations that people have, and that they bring to their conceptual reasoning

Question 18

why do we commonly think hat a robin is a better example of thee concept of bird than a penguin?

Answer 18

• things that have features with high cue validity are thought of as better representations of the concept
• ex: can fly, nests in trees

Question 19

theory based representations

Answer 19

• Concepts are based in theoretical beliefs about how things work in the world

• Theories and beliefs often emphasize causal relations and intentions as important features for concepts
• Theories of concepts are linked to factual knowledge and experience, but not defined by facts or evidence

Question 20

theory based representations examples

Answer 20

• Ex: the curved feature helps the boomerang work better

However, the curved featured does not help a banana taste better = false representation

-ex: square bike is a bad bike b/c it can’t move, hence the circle one is better

Question 21

how can we study children’s concepts

Answer 21

1. ask children to categorize then make inferences about the underling concepts
2. examine children’s expectations/ inferences and how they interact with things

Question 22

ask children to categorize examples

Answer 22

• here are a bunch of objects. Group them?:
• Here is object X. Can you find another object like X? dog pic belongs with dog or turtle
• Ask children to categorize before/after a change: dog wearing turtle costume
• Present a backstory for something and see how children categorize it: dog raised by turtles

Question 23

are children’s concepts perceptually based, concrete, and atheoretical? evidence to support this

Answer 23

• Piaget’s conservation tasks
• When learning a new word, preschool-age children seem to use it for things of the same shape, even if they are from different categories.
• Kiel’s transformation tasks (raccoon, skunk)

Question 24

do children’s concepts fo beyond the perceptual…evidence to support this

Answer 24

• does this bird feed its babies milk (perceptually based) or mashed up food (category based)?
• children chose the category based response most often (mashed up food)
• Most often, 4-year-olds generalize from the other, perceptually dissimilar, category member (e.g., the flamingo)

Children’s concepts of natural kinds do not appear perceptually based!

-Even at 13 months, infants can go beyond appearances and expect 2 dissimilar-looking things that have the same name (and are thus part of the same category) to share a nonobvious, internal property!

Question 25

do children’s concepts go beyond the perceptual

Answer 25

• yes children have ideas about lots of aspects of the world that guide their concept formation
• theory of biology, physics, psychology