chapter 8.1

Question 1

what is a concept?

Answer 1

the mental representation of an object, event or idea

Question 2

are concepts independent?

Answer 2

no, there are very few independent concepts you don’t have a concept for chair, one for table, and one for sofa, they would all be under a category of furniture

Question 3

what are categories?

Answer 3

clusters of interrelated concepts

Question 4

can concepts be divided in to smaller more precise labels?

Answer 4

yes (EG. chair can be divided in to arm chair)

Question 5

what was the earliest approach to study categories?

Answer 5

rule based categorization

Question 6

what is rule based categorization?

Answer 6

categorizing objects or events according to a certain set of rules or by a specific set of features

Question 7

what is an example of rule-based categorization?

Answer 7

a triangle can be defined as having 3 angles and three sides, using this definition you should find it easy to categorize triangles in a group with other shapes

Question 8

what is a major problem we confront in this rule-based categorization?

Answer 8

graded-membership

Question 9

what is graded-membership?

Answer 9

the observation that some concepts appear to make better category members than others

Question 10

what is an exemplar?

Answer 10

a specific example that best represents a category

Question 11

what is a prototype?

Answer 11

a mental representation of an average category member

Question 12

what is the difference between a examplar and a prototype?

Answer 12

an exemplar is a real example and a prototype can be thought of as an image that combines typical features of categories

Question 13

what do both exemplars and prototypes allow for?

Answer 13

categorization by comparison

Question 14

what is the main advantage of classification by comparison vs classification by categorization?

Answer 14

categorization by comparison better explain why some category members make better examples than others

Question 15

what are the 2 ways to categorize objects?

Answer 15

categorization by rules
categorization by comparison

Question 16

what is a semantic network?

Answer 16

an interconnected set of concepts and the links that join them to form a category

Question 17

how is the hierarchy of the semantic network set up?

Answer 17

the higher ones are the more general connections and the lower ones are more specific

Question 18

what are the 4 qualities of basic-level categories?

Answer 18

the terms used most often in conversation

they are easiest to pronounce

they are level at which prototypes exist

they are the level at which most thinking occurs

Question 19

what is an example of each tier of the semantic network?

Answer 19

top tier: there’s an animal in your yard
middle tier: there’s a bird in your yard
lowest tier: there’s a grey jay in your yard

Question 20

how can experience help us categorize?

Answer 20

integrating new stimulus into categories based on what they have seen, heard or read about it before and it leads to fast and accurate categorization-by-comparision

Question 21

can using experience to help categorize lead us wrong?

Answer 21

yes it is not always correct

Question 22

what is category specific visual agnosia (CSVA)?

Answer 22

when some patients with damage to the temporal lobes have trouble identifying objects such as pictures of animals or vegetables despite they were able to describe the different shapes that made up those objects

Question 23

did people with CSVA have a difficulty identifying living vs non living objects?

Answer 23

they had difficulties identifying fruits, vegetables and animals but were still able to accurately identify categories such as tools or furniture

Question 24

how does culture impact categorization?

Answer 24

it changes how people categorize

Question 25

what is an example of culture impacting categorization?

Answer 25

in North America cows are sometimes referred to as “livestock” meaning that they are raised to become food, but in India where cows are regarded as sacred, such a category would be nonsense