Categories and Concepts Flashcards
What do categories and concepts do?
Group together objects, events, etc., that are similar in some way
Categories and concepts support ______ of prior experience
generalization
What is the distinction between concepts and categories?
Categories group things in the world that go together; Concepts are the things (representations) in your head that allow you to categorize things in the world
Categories can be _____ or _____. What is the difference?
Categories can be TAXONOMIC or THEMATIC.
-Taxonomic is based on shared physical features
-Thematic is based on shared function or context
What are the three varieties of categories?
Natural, Artificial, and Ad hoc
What are the traits of a natural category?
Things created by nature that typically have shared physical features
What are the traits of an artificial category?
Things created by humans that typically have shared functions
What are the traits of an ad hoc category?
They are formed for a specific purpose or context, for example, things to take on a picnic
Children (and adults) organize categories and concepts into ________.
Children (and adults) organize categories and concepts into HIERARCHIES.
List the hierarchies from most to least general
most general, superordinate, basic, subordinate
Write a hierarchy for a La-Z Boy chair.
most general: inanimate object
superordinate: furniture
basic: chair
subordinate: La-Z-Boy
What was the traditional view about categories. Is this true?
The traditional view was that infants do not categorize. This isn’t true.
What are the two mechanisms of categorization?
Perceptual categorization and forming a prototype
What is perceptual categorization?
Grouping based on shared perceptual features.
What is forming a prototype?
Grouping based on similarity to a “representational average”
As children develop, categorization shifts from ______ to ______.
As children develop, categorization shifts from PERCEPTUAL to CONCEPTUAL.
What does conceptual development reflect?
The interaction of nature and nurture
What do nativists argue about conceptual development?
That innate understanding of concepts plays a central role in development
What do empiricists argue about conceptual development?
That concepts arise from basic learning mechanisms.
Children form ____ ____ for different domains. What are these domains?
Children form NAIVE THEORIES for different domains. They are physics, psychology, and biology
What does naive physics cover?
forces and motion, substance and object, and actual phenomenon
What does naive psychology cover?
The relationship between intention, belief and behavior; Knowing psychological phenomena such as perception, emotion, etc
What does naive biology cover?
The difference between biological and abiotic; Knowing of biological phenomena such as growth, death, and so on.
What characteristics do naive theories and formal scientific theories share?
Units, principles, and causality
What is Piaget’s theory to how infants form naive theories?
Infant’s physical interactions with objects
What is the infomational processing approach’s theory to how infants form naive theories?
Through basic processing skills
What is core-knowledge theory’s explanation for how infants form naive theories?
Infants have a biological predisposition to form particular responses
What is sociocultural theory’s explanation for how infants form naive theories?
the social world structures and communicates information about important concepts
Understanding others requires appreciating _______ _______ for behavior. This includes ______, ______, _______, and _______.
Understanding others requires appreciating MENTAL EXPLANATIONS for behavior. This includes DESIRES, INTENTIONS, ACTIONS, and BELIEFS.
What is the theory of mind?
The ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others
How does a child pass a false-belief test? What age do children usually pass?
They need to predict the behavior of another person based on an inferred mental state that differs from reality. Usually pass at 5 y.o.
What does theory of mind say about two-year olds?
They understand the connection between other people’s desires and actions, but show little understanding of beliefs. They will give someone their preferred snack
What does theory of mind say about three-year olds?
They understand that desires and beliefs affect behavior, but have difficulty with false belief problems where others’ beliefs are in conflict with the child’s own knowledge
What does theory of mind say about five-year olds?
They understand desires, beliefs, and intentions. They can pass false belief problems
Put these in the trajectory of development: earliest to latest; diverse desires, knowledge access, contents false belief, real-apparent emotion, explicit false belief, belief emotion, diverse beliefs
diverse desires, diverse beliefs, knowledge access, contents false belief, explicit false belief, belief emotion, real-apparent emotion
What are the four explanations for the development of theory of mind?
- children overcome egocentrism thorough assimilation and accomodation
- general information processing skills allow children to understand people’s minds
- there is a theory of mind module (TOMM)
- interactions with other people are crucial for developing theory of mind
What two things do preschoolers understand through naive biology?
- That biological processes are different from psychological processes
- The properties of living that are crucial for their functions
At _____ (age), children can distinguish people from other animals and from inanimate objects
1 year old
At _____ (age), children can assess properties of living and nonliving things
3-4 years old
At _____ (age), children realize plants are living things
7-9 years old
How do nativists argue that children acquire biological knowledge?
They argue that humans are born with a “biology module” that helps children learn quickly about living things; includes fascination of plants and animals
How do nativists support their argument for the “biology module”?
It was crucial for survival during early periods of evolution; Throughout the world, information about plants and animals are organized in similar ways
How do empiricists argue that children acquire biological knowledge?
That children’s biological understanding comes from observations and information received from parents, teachers, and culture.
What is the theory of mind module (TOMM)?
A hypothesized brain mechanism devoted to understanding other human beings
