Chapter 9 - Knowledge

Question 1

Define conceptual knowledge

Answer 1

-knowledge that enables us to recognize objects and events and to make inferences about their properties

Question 2

Fundamental unit of symbolic knowledge is the _______.

Answer 2

-concept

Question 3

Define concept

Answer 3

-an idea about something that gives us some understanding of the world (cat for ex)

Question 4

We use concepts to:

Answer 4

-make inferences
-combine to form complex thoughts (schemas)
-communication

Question 5

What are concepts organized into?

Answer 5

-categories

Question 6

Apple can be both a ______ or a ____________.

Answer 6

-concept; category

Question 7

What are the four different types of categories? (4)

Answer 7

-natural
-artifact
-ad hoc
-nominal kind

Question 8

What are natural categories?

Answer 8

-occur naturally, trees, plants, cats

Question 9

What are artifact categories?

Answer 9

-created by humans, hammers, computers

Question 10

What are ad hoc categories?

Answer 10

-created individually to suit a need, things you need to be happy

Question 11

What are nominal categories?

Answer 11

-arbitrary assignment of a label to an entity that meets a set of conditions, like the concept of a triangle

Question 12

Categories are considered to be the _______ to __________.

Answer 12

-pointers to knowledge
-they give a lot of information, like if something is a fruit, we know certain things about it

Question 13

What is the definitional approach to categorization?

Answer 13

-all examples of a category share fundamental characteristics or features that define their category
-Disassembles a concept into a set of featural components.

Question 14

Features represented in the definitional approach to categorization include what?

Answer 14

-features represented in a category are individually necessary and collectively necessary

Question 15

A defining feature is a necessary attribute. What does this mean?

Answer 15

-to belong to category X, the object must have that feature

Question 16

What are the problems with the definitional approach to categorization?

Answer 16

-some categories don’t fit well with defining features
-difficult to specify necessary features of some concepts

Question 17

What is the family resemblance view?

Answer 17

-things in a category resemble one another in a number of ways
-all of the pictures could be a chair

Question 18

What is the prototype approach to categorization?

Answer 18

-categories formed on the basis of a prototypical (average) model of the category

Question 19

Prototype approach supports ideas of characteristic features. What are these?

Answer 19

-features that are typical but not necessary (most birds can fly but not all birds)

Question 20

According to the prototype approach, the more characteristic features present the more what?

Answer 20

-it is regarded more as a member of that category

Question 21

A member that has high prototypically means what?

Answer 21

-they closely resembles category prototype (sparrow)

Question 22

What does it mean if they have low prototypically what does this mean?

Answer 22

-category member does not closely resemble category prototype (penguin)

Question 23

There is a strong positive relationship between prototypically and what?

Answer 23

-family resemblance approach

Question 24

When items have a large amount of overlap with characteristics of other items in the category, the family resemblance of these items is _____?

Answer 24

-high

Question 25

With the prototype approach, we see the typicality effect. What is it?

Answer 25

-prototypical objects are categorized faster (you would judge a sparrow faster)

Question 26

What is one way we measure typicality effect?

Answer 26

-sentence verification technique, you give people different sentences and the participant has to say if it was true or false (an apple is a fruit, T/F?)

Question 27

The typicality effect is affected by what?

Answer 27

-priming
-if you hear the word “green” you will respond to a prototypical green colour swatch faster

Question 28

What is the exemplar approach?

Answer 28

-represented by multiple examples, your own examples

Question 29

How does categorization occur in the exemplar approach?

Answer 29

-you compare the new item to stored examples

Question 30

How is the exemplar approach similar to the prototype view?

Answer 30

-categorizing is based on similarity rather than a definition or exactness

Question 31

What is different between the exemplar and prototype view?

Answer 31

-not based on what an abstract average would be (like an average bird) but a specific example you have encountered

Question 32

What does the Exemplar Approach explain well?

Answer 32

-the typicality effect, accounts for atypical cases, and handles variable categories effectively.

Question 33

When are prototypes and exemplars typically used?

Answer 33

-Prototypes are used early in learning for larger categories, while exemplars help refine categories by accounting for exceptions in smaller categories`

Question 34

What are the three levels of categories in hierarchical organization?

Answer 34

-Superordinate (general), Basic (common), and Subordinate (specific).

Question 35

Why is the basic level of categories considered special?

Answer 35

• It is most commonly used in naming, quickly identified, and learned earlier by children (you tell a child to sit in the “chair” not the “armchair” for example)

Question 36

What are examples of the levels of categories?

Answer 36

-Superordinate: “Furniture”
-Basic: “Chair,”
-Subordinate: “Rocking Chair.”

Question 37

How do basic-level categories differ in communication?

Answer 37

-They are more frequent in adult discourse and consistent across cultures, especially for living things.

Question 38

How does greater experience affect categorization? (Example) (2)

Answer 38

• It leads to greater specificity, allowing for the use of subordinate categories.
  -For example, someone who has a lot of experience with dogs would probably be able to describe the dogs and use words that were more specific (subordinate) than someone with less information

Question 39

What is the primary function of nodes in the hierarchical model?

Answer 39

-Nodes represent categories or concepts and are linked to show how information is organized in the mind.

Question 40

What is the “special level” of categorization?

Answer 40

-It varies depending on experience and knowledge of the category.

Question 41

What is the hierarchical model proposed by Collins and Quillian (1969)?

Answer 41

-A model that looks like a network or web where concepts are related to each other with lines and the concepts higher up will be more broad categories and the concepts lower down will be more specific categories
-Node for “Dog” is linked to “Animal” because a dog is a type of animal.

Question 42

A node is a what?

Answer 42

-category concept
-Node for “Dog” represents the concept of a dog.

Question 43

What is cognitive economy in the hierarchical model? Example? (2)

Answer 43

-Shared properties are only stored at higher-level nodes to avoid repetition.
-Example: “Has four legs” is stored at the Animal node, so you don’t need to store it separately for every animal, including dogs.

Question 44

How are concepts linked in the Hierarchical Model?

Answer 44

-Concepts are connected by links that show relationships between them.
Example: Dog is linked to Mammal (because dogs are mammals), and Mammal is linked to Animal (because mammals are animals).

Question 45

How does the Hierarchical Model handle exceptions?

Answer 45

Exceptions are stored at lower-level nodes.
Example: Penguin is an exception to the rule “birds can fly,” so it has the property “cannot fly” stored at the Penguin node.

Question 46

What is “inheritance” in the Hierarchical Model?

Answer 46

-Lower-level concepts inherit properties from higher-level concepts.
Example: A Dog inherits the property “has legs” from the higher-level category Animal because all animals have legs.

Question 47

What is the sentence verification task in the Hierarchical Model? Example (2)

Answer 47

-A task where participants indicate if a statement is true or false, and their reaction time is measured.
-Statement: “Salmon are pink.”
-Participants answer “True” and the reaction time is measured based on how quickly they respond.

Question 48

How does the Hierarchical Model explain reaction time in sentence verification tasks?

Answer 48

-The more links you have to travel through in the hierarchy, the longer it takes to verify a sentence.

Question 49

What is spreading activation in semantic networks? (Which occurs during hierarchical categorization). What does this explain? Example. (3)

Answer 49

• Spreading activation refers to the process where activating one node causes activity to spread to all linked nodes, making related concepts easier to access
  -this explains priming
  Example: Activating the node for “dog” might spread activation to linked nodes like “animal,” “pet,” or “tail.”

Question 50

: What does “activation” mean in the context of semantic networks?

Answer 50

-Activation refers to the arousal level of a node, which increases when the node is accessed or primed.
Example: When you think about “dog,” the “dog” node becomes activated and has a higher arousal level.

Question 51

What did Myer and Schvaneveldt (1971) demonstrate in their study? Example? (2)

Answer 51

-They showed that reaction times are faster for closely associated word pairs, demonstrating spreading activation in semantic networks.
Example: Closely associated pairs: “Bread” and “Butter”

Question 52

What is a criticism of the Collins and Quillian hierarchical model?

Answer 52

-The model cannot explain typicality effects, where reaction times are faster for statements about more typical members of a category.
Example: Typical member: “A robin is a bird” RT is faster than an “ostrich is a bird” even though they are at the same level on the hierarchy so should be the same RT

Question 53

What is the criticism regarding “cognitive economy” in Collins and Quillian’s model?

Answer 53

-The model assumes that shared properties are stored at higher-level nodes, but people may actually store specific properties at the concept node itself.
Example: Instead of storing “has skin” at the higher-level “Animal” node, people might store it directly under “Dog” to account for specific properties of individual concepts.

Question 54

What is the problem with the Semantic Network Model based on sentence verification results?

Answer 54

-The model predicts that more general concepts (like “Animal”) should take longer to verify, but reaction times were faster for verifying “A pig is a animal” than “A pig is an mammal,” which contradicts the model’s predictions.

Question 55

Use an example of a beagle to describe the basic, superordinate and general.

Answer 55

Superordinate: animal
Basic: dog
Subordinate (specific): beagle

Question 56

At the basic level, when you compare items like a table with other tables, how many features do they have in common?

Answer 56

-9

Question 57

Your greatest gain in information is when you move from the _____ level to the _____ level.

Answer 57

-global; basic