Ch 9 Conceptual knowledge Flashcards
Concepts
A mental representation of a class or individual. Also, the meaning of objects, events, and abstract ideas. An example of a concept would be the way a person mentally represents “cat” or “house”
Category
Groups of objects that belong together because they belong to the same class of objects, such as “houses”, “furniture”, or “school”
Categorization
The process by which objects are placed in categories.
Definitional approach to categorization.
The idea that we can decide wether something is a member of category by determining wether the object meets the definition of the category. Family resemblances
Family resemblance
In considering the process of categorization, the idea that things in a particular category resemble each other in a number of ways. This approach can be contrasted with the definition approach, which states that an object belongs to a category only when it meets a definite set of criteria.
Prototype approach to categorization.
The idea that we decide wether something is a member of a category by determining wether it is similar to a standard representation of a category, called a prototype.
Prototype
A standard used in categorization that is formed by averaging the category members a person has encountered in the past.
Typicality
Highly typical means that a category member closely resembles the category prototype.
Sentence verification technique
A technique in which the participants is asked to indicate wether a particular sentence is true or false. For example, sentence like “an apple is a fruit” have been used in studies on categorization.
Typicality effect
The ability to judge or falsity of sentence involving high-prototypical members of a category more rapidly than sentence involving low-prototypical members of a category.
Exemplar approach to categorization
The approach to categorization in which members of a category are judged against exemplars-examples of members of a category that person have encountered in the past.
Exemplars
In categorization, members of a category that a person has experienced in the past.
Superordinal level
The most general category level distinguished by Rosch-for example, “furniture”
Global level
The highest level in Rosch’s categorization scheme. “Furniture” “vehicle”
The basic level
The level below the global (superordinate) level (e.g., “table” or “chair” for the superordinate category “furniture”. According to Rosch, the basic level is psychological special because it is the level above which much information is lost and below which little is gained.
The subordinate level
The most specific category level distinguishes by Rosch-for example, “kitchen table”
Specific level
In Rosch categorization scheme, the level below the basic level ( e.g, “kitchen table” for the basic category “table”
Semantic network approach
An approach to understand how concepts are organized in the mind that proposes that concepts are arranged in networks
Hierarchical modal
Applied to knowledge representation, a modal that consists of levels arranged so that more specific concepts, such as canary or salmon, are at the bottom and more general concepts, such as birds, fish, or animal, are at higher levels.
Cognitive economy
A feature of some semantic network modales in which properties of a category are stored at higher-level node in the network. For example, the property “can fly” would be stored at the node for “bird” rather than at the node for “cannery”
Spreading activation
Activity that spreads out along any link in a semantic network that is connected to an activated node.
Lexical decision task
A procedure in which a person is asked to decide as quickly as possible wether a particular stimulus is a word or a nonword.
Connectionism
A network model of mental operation that proposes that concepts are represented networks that are modeled after neural networks. Also called the parallel distributing processing (PDP) approach.
Connection network
The type of network proposed by the connectionist approach to the representation of concepts. Connectionist networks are based on neural networks but are not necessarily identical to them.
Units
Neuronlike processing units, in a connectionist network.
Input units
Units in a connectionist network that are activated by stimulation from the environment.
Connection weight
In connectionist models, a connection weight determines the degree to which signals sent from one unit either increases or decreases the activity of the next unit.
Error signals
During learning in a connectionist network, the difference between the output signal generated by a particular stimulus and the output that actually represents that stimulus.
Back propagation
A process by which learning can occur in a connectionist network, in which an error signal is transmitted backward through the network. This backward transmitted error signal provides the information needed to adjust the weights in the network.
Graceful degradation.
Disruption of performance due to damage to a system that occurs only gradually as parts of the system are damaged.
Category-specific memory impairment
A result of the brain damage in which the patient has trouble recognizing objects in a specific category.
Encephalitis
Infection of the brain caused by infection or allergic reaction.
Sensory-functional (s-f) hypothesis
Explanation of how semantic information is represented in the brain that states that the ability to differentiate living things and artifacts depends on one system that distinguishes sensory attributes and another system that distinguishes function.
Multiple-factor approach
Seeking to describe how concepts are represented in the brain by searching for multiple factors that determine how concepts are divided up within a category.
Crowding
Animals tend to share many properties, such as eyes, legs, and the ability to move. This is relevant to multiple factor approach to the representation of concepts in the brain.
Semantic category approach
An approach to describing how semantic information is represented in the brain that proposes that there are specific neural circuits for some specific categories.
Embodied approach
Proposal that our knowledge of concepts is based on reactivation of sensory and motor processes that occur when we interact with an object . When we see a hammer or read the word HAMMER later, these sensory and motor areas are reactivated, and it is this information that represents the hammer (Barsalou, 2008)
Semantic somatotopy
Correspondence between words related to specific parts of the body and the location of brain associated with that part of the body.
Semantic dementia
Condition in which there is a general loss of knowledge for all concepts.
Anterior temporal lobe
Area in the temporal lobe. Damage to the ATL has been connected with semantic deficits in dementia patients and with the savant syndrome.
Hub and spoke model
A model of semantic knowledge that proposes that areas of the brain that are associated with different functions are connected to the anterior temporal lobe, which integrates information from these areas l.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
A procedure in which magnetic pulses are applied to the skull in order to temporarily disrupt the functioning of part of the brain.
The sensory-functional Hypothesis
Elizabeth Warrington and Tim Shallice (1984)
The impairment of the brain, where they lost the ability to distinguish certain objects but kept the ability to distinguish others.
Multiple factor approach
Paul Hoffman and Matthew Lambon Ralph (2013) used color, Motion, Performed action, to distinguish which were associated with particular groups such as animal or artifacts.
They proposed that patients had difficulty recognizing living things because they shared similar traits or features.
Semantic Category Approach
Bradford Mahon and Alfonso Caramazza (2011) the localization of objects in certain parts of the brain such as faces, places, and bodies. However this approach also emphasizes that the brains response is distributed over a number of different areas.
Priming
When presentations of one stimulus facilitates the response to another stimulus that usually follows closely in time.
