Concepts

Question 1

What are Concepts?

Answer 1

general knowledge of a category; a mental
representation of it

Question 2

What are Categories?

Answer 2

items that are grouped together according to concept

Question 3

What are Exemplars?

Answer 3

individual items within a category

Question 4

What is the SUPERORDINATE category?

Answer 4

Super broad (ex. mammal or fish)

Question 5

What is the BASIC category?

Answer 5

Things kids learn first, more specific.
(ex. deer or dog)

Question 6

What is the subordinate category?

Answer 6

Super specific
(ex. boxer or terrier)

Question 7

What is Cognitive economy?

Answer 7

Use the simplest terms that is still meaningful for the situation

Question 8

What is Generalization?

Answer 8

• Generalization is the process of deriving a concept from specific experiences

Question 9

What is The classic approach to concept learning?

Answer 9

Concepts involve forming rules about lists features

• Defining features are necessary and sufficient for category membership
• Characteristics features are those common but not essential for category membership
• Feature comparison between encountered
  items and list
• Refines what a defining features is for a concept

Question 10

What is the classic approach to concept learning good for?

Answer 10

Works well for simple concepts, not so much for:

• Complex concepts that are subject to variability (e.g., a fur-less dog)
• Ambiguous concepts: ‘student’; a ‘bachelor’ … a ‘hot dog

Question 11

What is Prototype theory of concepts?

Answer 11

• Categories are formed from the overlap of exemplars
• These are extracted from experience
• Each category has an abstracted prototype that is pre-stored in memory
• This represents the most common features with other members
• Exemplars included in a category network around that prototype
• Similar items are stored closer to the prototype than dissimilar items (typicality)

Question 12

How does Context affects typicality effect?

Answer 12

ex. farms will rate chickens as a more typical example of a bird then ppl in a city.

Question 13

What is the Exemplar theory?

Answer 13

There is no single abstract prototype for a concept
* Every instance of a category is stored in memory, not a prototype

To determine if a new item is member of a category:
* Retrieve some or all exemplars of category members
* Compute similarity to new item at the time of concept determination

Explains how context can influence concept representations
* Experience and situational context used to form concepts at retrieval

Question 14

What is Essentialism in defining categories?

Answer 14

The idea that certain categories have an
underlying reality or true nature that one cannot observe

Question 15

What is an embodied view of concepts?

Answer 15

• Concepts are accessed as a function of the environment and current goals
• Concepts are processed in different brain networks, and shift depending on what is required to be accessed from a
  concept