Categorization

Question 1

What is categorization?

Answer 1

To categorize some object x is to come to think of it as an instance of a category (a class of objects that belong together).

Question 2

What is a category?

Answer 2

A class of objects / things that belong together

Question 3

What is the difference between a concept and a category?

Answer 3

A concept is a mental representation of a category.

Question 4

How does one go about studying categorization psychologicaly?

Answer 4

Typically, there are two experimental paradigms used:

1. Visual (i.e participant is shown a picture of an object, and asked whether the object is part of a target category)
2. Verbal (i..e participant is given name of an object and asked to decide whether the object is part of a target category)

Question 5

What are the functions of categorization?

Answer 5

There are two main functions:

(1) It may be our primary way of coding experience.
(2) It licenses inductive inferences about a particular.

Question 6

What does it mean to ‘code experience’?

Answer 6

Coding experience can be described as the way humans translate sensory input information into a representation that we are able to better understand.

Question 7

What is a taxonomy?

Answer 7

A hierarchy in which successive levels refer to increasingly general kinds of objects. It is originally used to refer only to classify organisms.

Question 8

What factors impact inductive inferences?

Answer 8

(1) Taxonomy level (sub-ordinate categories support more inferences than super-ordinate)
(2) Whether the category is artificial kind or natural kind