Cognitive Psychology - Concepts and Categories

Question 1

How does inference work?

Answer 1

Knowledge is inferred from what we know about other related things, which helps us to make sense of the world and make predictions

Question 2

What is semantic memory?

Answer 2

Knowledge about things in the world (ideas, concepts, facts)

Question 3

What is episodic memory?

Answer 3

Memory about specific events

Question 4

Do we just experience things in the world?

Answer 4

No, we organise our experiences

Question 5

Give 4 key concepts for organising the world

Answer 5

1) We don’t just experience things in the world, we organise that experience
2) We see individual instances (exemplars) as belonging to categories/classes/coconcepts
3) Knowing what something is (what category it belongs to, what it’s similar to/belongs with, we know lots about it even though we haven’t actually encountered it before)
4) Meaning of a word = accessing its concept

Question 6

What is the purpose of semantic networks

Answer 6

organising knowledge of what things are

Question 7

which type of networks organise knowledge of what things are?

Answer 7

Semantic

Question 8

What is a defining attribute?

Answer 8

An attribute possessed by all members of a category and that distinguishes it from members of other categories