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Cognitive Psychology > Chapter 9 > Flashcards

Chapter 9 Flashcards

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1
Q

conceptual knowledge

A
  • helps with recognition and generating inferences
  • enables people to recognize objects and events and to make inferences about their properties
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2
Q

concepts

A
  • mental representation of an object, event, or abstract ideas
  • e.g. how someone mentally represents a “cat” or “house”
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3
Q

category

A
  • examples of a concept that are grouped together
  • e.g. category of “cats” includes tabbies, Siamese cats, Persian cats, leopards, etc
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4
Q

categorization

A
  • process of building and placing things in a category
  • categorization not only helps understand what is happening in the environment, it also plays an essential role in enabling us to take action
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5
Q

approaches to categorization

A
  1. definitional approach
  2. family resemblance
  3. prototype approach
  4. exemplar approach
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6
Q

definitional approach

A
  • categorization based on definition of the category
  • each member of a category needs to meet the same/set criteria
  • e.g. “a square is a plane figure having four equal sides, with all internal angles the same”
  • the problem is that not all of the members of everyday categories have the same features
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7
Q

familial resemblance

A
  • categorization based on ways they resemble each other
  • each feature of objects within a category do no need to match
  • allows for some variation within a category
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8
Q

prototype approach

A
  • strategy of category selection based on similarity with a prototype
  • an “average” representation of the category
  • individuals generate their own prototype for a category but people often have similar prototypes
  • variations within categories as representing differences in typicality
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9
Q

prototype

A

a “typical” member of the category

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10
Q

high typicality

A

a category member closely resembles the category prototype

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11
Q

low typicality

A

the category member does not closely resemble a typical member of the category

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12
Q

typicality effect

A

faster to verify prototypical/typical members as belonging to a category than non prototypical/less typical members

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13
Q

sentence verification technique

A
  • participant is asked to indicate whether a particular sentence is true or false
  • determine how rapidly people could answer questions about na objects category
  • used by Edward Smith at al. (1974)
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14
Q

prototypical members and priming

A
  • prototypical members of a category are more affected by a priming stimulus than are non prototypical members
  • priming results in faster “same” judgments for the prototypical objects
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15
Q

exemplar approach

A
  • strategy of category selection based on the greatest similarity between an item in category and the novel item
  • members of a category are judged against examples
  • examples of members of the category that the person has encountered in the past
  • selecting the category with an exemplar that is the closest match the the item that is to be categorized
  • can deal with more variable categories
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16
Q

exemplars

A
  • actual members of the category that a person has encountered in the past
  • e.g. if a person has encountered sparrows, robins, and blue jays in the past, each of these would be an exemplar for the category “birds.”
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17
Q

hierarchal organization

A
  • organization of categories in which larger, more general categories are divided into smaller, more specific categories
  • these smaller categories can, in turn, be divided into even more specific categories to create a number of levels
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18
Q

categories of Roschs hierarchal organization

A
  1. superordinate/global category
  2. basic-level category
  3. subordinate category
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19
Q

superordinate global category

A
  • top of the hierarchy
  • contain many category members
  • broad and varied, meaning one can’t generate a prototype at the superordinate level
  • most general category level
  • lack similarity
  • e.g. fridge and a desk = both furniture but not similar
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20
Q

basic-level category

A
  • in the middle of the hierarchy
  • often the first words learned and the type of words used daily belong at the basic-level category
  • categories are the most differentiated at this level
  • items within the basic-level category are similar (guitar and harp)
  • items in different basic-level categories are dissimilar (guitar vs. apple)
  • categorization is fastest at this level
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21
Q

subordinate category

A
  • bottom of the hierarchy
  • fewest amount of category members/items
  • most specific category level
  • e.g. rocking chair, bean bag chair, dining chair → there’s only so many type of rocking chairs or dining chairs
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22
Q

exceptions to Roschs hierarchal organization/categorization

A
  • exceptions are the experts in a field
  • e.g. if there’s a birdwatcher thy would be able to categories items at the subordinate level very quickly, like categorizing a type of sparrow
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23
Q

semantic network approach

A

an approach to understanding how concepts are organized in the mind that proposes that concepts are arranged in networks

24
Q

hierarchal model

A

as applied to knowledge representation, a model that consists of levels arranged so that more specific concepts

25
Q

collins and quillians semantic network model (1969)

A
  • semantic network model is a type of hierarchical model that explains organization of semantic knowledge in LTM via a diagram
  • concepts represented as nodes and arranged hierarchically
  • concepts that are semantically associated are connected through links
  • movement through the network takes time
  • retrieval of concepts involves spreading activation
  • the model indicates how concepts and their properties are associated in the mind, and to make predictions about how we retrieve properties associated with a concept
26
Q

cognitive economy

A
  • feature of some semantic network models in which properties of a category that are shared by many members of a category are stored at a higher-level node in the network
  • e.g. the property “can fly” would be stored at the node for “bird” rather than at the node for “canary”
  • makes the network more efficient, it does create a problem because not all birds fly
  • quillian added exceptions at lower nodes to solve this problem
27
Q

semantic facilitation

A
  • semantic facilitation occurs when the semantic path was just used
  • if the path is used before the activation dissipates then our travel down that path is facilitated
  • e.g. if you need to verify a canary is a bird you activated that pathway, but if you have to verify that a canary is a bird a second time, before the activation of that path has completely dissipated you can travel it quicker
28
Q

characteristics of the semantic network models

A
  • direction of movement is bottom to the top
  • semantic facilitation occurs when the semantic path was just used
  • accounts for the category-size effect
29
Q

category size effect

A
  • faster to classify items that are part of a small category rather than a large category
  • e.g. bottom of the hierarchy
30
Q

spreading activation

A
  • activity that spreads out along any link in a semantic network that is connected to an activated node
  • spreading activation can influence priming
31
Q

lexical decision task

A

a procedure in which a person is asked to decide as quickly as possible whether a particular stimulus is a word or a nonword

32
Q

limitations of the semantic network

A
  1. can’t explain the typicality effect
  2. classification speed does not always depends on level changes/distance traveled in the network
33
Q

the semantic network can’t explain the typicality effect example

A
  • verify “a penguin is a bird” → slow RT
  • penguins are atypical members because they don’t fly, in comparison to canaries which are typical
  • verify “a canary is a bird” → faster RT
34
Q

classification speed is not always dependent on level changes/distance traveled in the semantic network example

A
  • verify “a Chimpanzee is a primate” → 1 level change → slow RT
  • verify “a chimpanzee is an animal” → 2 level changes → faster RT
  • however research has shown that verifying chimpanzees as an animal is much quicker than verifying it as a primate
35
Q

connections model

A

explains how knowledge is represented in the mind and can explain findings such as how concepts are learned and how damage to the brain affects people’s knowledge about concepts

36
Q

connectionism

A
  • a network model of mental operation that proposes that concepts are represented in networks that are modeled after neural networks
  • an approach to creating computer models for representing cognitive processes
  • aka parallel distributed processing models
  • concepts are represented as units
37
Q

connection weight

A
  • determines the degree to which signals sent from one unit either increase or decrease the activity of the next unit
  • connection weight of each unit determines activation or inhibition of a signal
38
Q

3 types of connection weights

A
  1. high connection weights
  2. low connection weights
  3. negative connection weights
39
Q

high connection weights

A

result in a strong tendency to excite the next unit

40
Q

lower connection weights

A

cause less excitation

41
Q

negative connection weights

A

can decrease excitation or inhibit activation of the receiving unit

42
Q

activation units in a network depend on: (2)

A
  1. the signal that originates in the input units
  2. the connection weights throughout the network
43
Q

input units

A

units activated by stimuli from the environment

44
Q

hidden units

A
  • located between input units and output units
  • receive signals from input units and send them to output units
45
Q

output units

A

contain the final output of the network

46
Q

error signal

A

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

47
Q

back propagation

A
  • an error signal is transmitted backward through the network
  • this provides the information needed to adjust the weights in the network to achieve the correct output signal for a stimulus
48
Q

graceful degradation

A

disruption of performance due to damage to a system that occurs only gradually

49
Q

4 representations of concepts in the brain

A
  1. sensory-functional hypothesis
  2. multiple-factor approach
  3. semantic category approach
  4. embodied approach
50
Q

sensory-functional hypothesis

A

we identify living things based on sensory features and nonliving things based on their function

51
Q

multiple-factor approach

A
  • identify living and nonliving things based on sensory features, function, motion, color
  • how concepts are divided up within a category
52
Q

semantic category approach

A

specific neural circuits associated with specific categories

53
Q

embodied approach

A

reactivation of sensory and motor processes when interacting with objects

54
Q

semantic dementia

A
  • condition in which there is a general loss of knowledge for all concepts
  • patients with semantic dementia tend to be equally deficient in identifying living things and artifacts
  • damage to the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) has been connected with semantic deficits in dementia patients and with the savant syndrome
55
Q

hub and spoke model of semantic knowledge

A
  • 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
  • functions indicated include: valence, speech, auditory, praxis, functionality and visual
56
Q

transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

A

a procedure in which magnetic pulses are applied to the skull in order to temporarily disrupt the functioning of part of the brain

Cognitive Psychology (9 decks)

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