Chapter 9 - Knowledge Flashcards
what is conceptual knowledge?
-> it enables us to recognize objects and events, and make inferences about their properties
(knowledge about concepts)
what is a concept?
-> an idea about something that gives us an idea of what it is / it’s properties
what is an example of how concepts allow us to make inferences?
-> how if you have the concept of a cat, you know it has whiskers, a tail, 4 legs, without it being explicitly stated
how are schemes and concepts related?
-> schemes are made up of many concepts
how are concepts and categories related?
-> concepts can be organized into different categories
what is a natural category?
-> a category that occurs naturally (trees, birds, plants)
what is an artifact category?
-> categories made by humans (furniture, tools)
what is an ad hoc category?
-> personalized categories (what you need to be happy)
what is the definitional approach?
-> the idea that all examples in a category share features that define that category
what are problems with the definitional approach?
-> some categories don’t fit well with “defining features”, there are exceptions
what is family resemblance?
-> when things in a category resemble each other in many ways (a more flexible version of the definitional approach)
what is the prototype approach?
-> the idea that categories are formed based on a prototypical average model of the category where characteristic features are typical but not absolutely necessary
what is the difference between high prototypicality and family resemblance?
prototypicality = is it a typical member of the category?
family resemblance = how many characteristics do they share?
what is the typicality effect?
-> highly prototypical objects are recognized faster than low prototypical objects
what is the relationship between priming and prototypicality?
high prototypical concepts are more likely to be affected by priming, because priming requires ppl to form “typical” images
what is the exemplar approach?
-> concepts are based on multiple life examples, we compare new items to existing exemplars
how does the exemplar approach explain the typicality effect?
because we have more experience with examples of typical members of a category
what is better for small categories, prototypes or exemplars?
-> prototypes
what are the categories in hierarchical organization?
superordinate (global)
basic
subordinate (specific)
which do we rely on the most in hierarchical organization?
-> the basic category. we learn basics faster and are faster to identify objects from the basic category
how does expertise play into hierarchical organization?
-> if you’re an expert in something, you’ll often refer to it in the specific level
what is the hierarchical model?
categories are arranged in networks with nodes, general is on top, more specific at the bottom
what is inheritance?
-> the idea that low level items share characteristics of higher level items (more basic)
what nodes take longer to verify?
-> the higher up, more basic nodes, because there is more nodes to travel
