Ch9 - Concepts & Categories Flashcards
prototype
a depiction of the “ideal” or average model of a category
eg: a dog has four legs, fur and barks (all features which are common in dogs but not all dogs)
typicality
the degree to which something resembles a prototype
eg: a lab is a highly typical dog
graded membership
a method of categorization where things are either more or less befitting of a given category
eg: a cat fits the category “dog” better than a bird does
category membership
how typical an item is
eg: a hairless chihuahua is not a highly typical dog
3 methods of testing the prototype theory
list
- sentence verification task
- production task
- rating task
sentence verification task
measuring the reaction time of a participant after being asked does x fit into y category?
- faster reaction times for more typical items
eg: faster reaction time for “is a robin a bird” vs “is a penguin a bird”
production task
name as many items in category y as you can
- individuals start with highly typical examples
eg: robin, bluebird, seagull… flamingo, penguin
rating task
participants rate how well x belongs in y category
this gives the item atypicality rating (averaged across responses)
- fruit category: apple achieves a higher rating than olive
basic level category
the most “natural” level of categorization, not too specific or too general given the circumstances
eg: likely to lable an item as a “chair” instead of “piece of furniture” or “upholstered armchair”
superordinate vs subordinate
superordinate: too general categorization
subordinate: too specific categorization
exemplar based reasoning
each example or memory of an item is compared to the current situation to determine whether or not it fits into a category
eg: this creature looks like a dog I saw yesterday, the creature is likely also a dog
what are two broad categories most humans use?
- Natural kinds (eg: plants and animals)
- Artifacts (human made things)
do different categories activate different parts of the brain?
yes, different parts of the brain activate when thinking of natural kinds vs artifacts or living vs nonliving things
hub and spoke model
hub: in anterior temporal lobes is responsible for connecting and integrating information
spokes: other brain areas, responsible for more specific aspects of categories
anomia
disorder (typically caused by brain damage) where the person loses the ability to name certain objects
embodied cognition
theory that our concepts include memory of perceptual properties and motor sequences
eg: the brain area associated with the motor component of running will activate when thinking about the concept of “soccer”
how does response time vary with memory links?
more links in memory needed –> longer time to respond
for both category questions and property questions
eg: faster to say yes to “canary is a canary” vs “canary is an animal”
and faster to say yes to “canary can sing” vs “canary has skin”
propositions
the smallest unit of knowledge that can be true or false
