Chapter 9: The Organization of Knowledge in the Mind Flashcards
Can be expressed in words and other symbols.
Declarative
Knowledge about how to follow procedural steps for performing actions.
Procedural
The use of multiple approaches and techniques to address a problem.
Converging operations
4 fundamental unit of symbolic knowledge.
Concepts
Categories
Semantic networks
Schemas
Idea about something that provides a means of understanding the world.
Concepts
Group of items into which different objects or concepts can be placed that belong together because they share some common features
or can act as a category.
Categories
3 categories in symbolic knowledge.
Natural Category
Artificial Category
Ad Hoc Category
A knowledge base that represents semantic
relations between concepts in a network.
Semantic networks
Mental frameworks of knowledge that encompass a number of interrelated concepts; creates a meaningful structure of related concepts.
Schemas
Groupings that occur naturally in the world, like birds or trees.
Natural categories
Groupings that are designed or invented by humans to serve particular purposes or functions.
Artifact categories
Categories that are just created for a moment or for specific purpose.
Ad hoc categories
Concepts appear to have this level of
specificity, a level within a hierarchy that is preferred to other levels.
Basic level (natural level)
Theories on concept organization.
Feature-based categories
Prototype theory
Exemplars
Theory-based categorization
A full theory of categorization can combine both defining and characteristic features, so that each category has both a prototype and a core; combining feature-based and prototype theories.
Synthesis
Must have this to be considered a member.
Feature-based categories
Category containing salient features that are true of most instances; ideal representation of the category.
Prototype theory
Takes different approach: grouping things together not by their defining features but rather by their similarity to an averaged model of the category.
Prototype theory
An abstract average of all the objects in the category we have encountered before. It is what the objects are compared with in order to put them into a category.
Prototype
Describe the prototype but are not necessary for it. Commonly are present in typical examples of concepts, but they are not
always present.
Characteristic Features
Categories that can be readily defined through defining features such as bachelor.
Classical concepts
Categories that cannot be so easily defined, such as game or death.
Fuzzy concepts
Refers to the defining features somethings must have to be considered an example of a category.
Core
Typical representatives of a category.
Exemplars
A view of meaning which holds that people understand and categorize concept in terms of implicit theories, or general ideas they have regarding those concepts; also called an explanation-based view.
Theory- Based View of Categorization
An older model still in use today is that knowledge is represented in terms of a hierarchical semantic network.
Collins and Quillian’s Network Model
A web of elements of meaning (nodes) that
are connected with each other through links.
Semantic network
Elements of meaning; typically concepts.
Nodes
Contains information about the particular order in which things occur.
Script
Specialized vocabulary commonly used within a
group, such as profession or trade.
Jargon
Information is handled through a linear sequence of operations, one operation at a time.
Serial Processing of information
Types of non-declarative knowledge.
Procedural knowledge
Simple associative conditioning
Simple Non Associative Knowledge
Priming
Types of priming.
Semantic priming
Repetition
Contains a mechanism by which information can be retrieved and also a structure for storing information; nodes can be either inactive or active at a given time; suggests means by which the network changes as a result of activation.
Act-R (Anderson)
3 stages of acquisition of procedural knowledge.
Cognitive stage
Associative stage
Autonomous stage
We think about explicit rules for implementing the procedure.
Cognitive stage
We consciously practice using the explicit rules extensively, usually in a highly consistent manner.
Associative stage
We use these rules autonomically and implicitly without thinking about them.
Autonomous stage
Aspect of proceduralization; involves the two
complementary processes of generalization
and discrimination; we learn to generalize
existing rules to apply them to new
conditions.
Production tuning
We handle very large numbers of cognitive
operations at once through a network
distributed across incalculable numbers of
locations in the brain.
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models/connectionist models
Not stimulated beyond their threshold of excitation. They do not release any neurotransmitters into the synapse.
Inactive neurons
Release neurotransmitters that stimulate receptive neurons at the synapse; increase the likelihood that the receiving neurons will reach their threshold of excitation.
Excitatory neurons
Release neurotransmitters that inhibit receptive neurons; reduce the likelihood that the receiving neurons will reach their threshold of
excitation.
Inhibitory neurons
Related to meaning as
expressed in language—i.e., in linguistic symbols.
Semantic
Provides a means of organizing concepts.
Network
The overall process by
which we transform slow, explicit information
about procedures (“knowing that”) into
speedy, implicit, implementations of
procedures (“knowing how”).
Proceduralization
