Concepts Flashcards
Concepts
General knowledge of a category; a mental representation of it
-E.g. Container of jelly-beans -> The container
Categories
Items that are grouped together according to concept
-E.g. Container of jelly-beans -> The jelly-beans
Exemplars
Individual items within a category
-E.g Container of jelly-beans -> The pink jelly-beans
Concept Organization : Inclusitivity
Hierchy
-Superordinate level
-Basic level
-Subordinate level
Semantic Dementia Patients
Early in disease, basic level concepts are accessed
-A dog is a dog
As the disease progresses, use general concepts
-A dog is an animal
Cognitive Economy
Use the simplest terms that is still meaningful for the situation
-General public : this is an owl
-Birders : this is a snowy owl
A Graded Concept Organization
In a network, there might be a better representation of their concepts
-E.g. dog is A+ mammel
The notion of concept inclusitivity
The ability to refer to this object as both a musical instrument and as a violin reflects…?
Generalization
The process of deriving a concept from specific experiences
Generalization from Concept Learning
Ability to label categories as part of a concept or not
The Classical Approach to Concept Learning
Concepts involve forming rules about lists features
-Defining features
-Characteristics features
-Feature comparison between encountered items and list
Defining Features
Necessary and sufficient for category membership
Characteristics Features
Those common but not essential for category memberhsip
Arguments Against the Classical Approach to Concept Learning
Works well for simple concepts, not so much for:
-Complex concepts that are subjects to variability
-Ambiguous concepts
Concepts are represented by Similarity
Concepts are not based on defined features, rather are defined by the resemblance to a collection of features
Wittgenstein
What is common among the concept ‘Game’?
-There is no single attribute that defines a game rather there is a ‘family resemblance’, some inherent similarity
Fuzzy Bounderies
-Items are, more or less, part of a category
-An item can be categorized into more than one category
-We’re flexible
-Can change depend on time + situation
Feature List
-Early learning
-Physical object
-Living
-Animate
-Feathers
-BIRD!
Networks
-Late learning
-Network of similarity
-Robin is related more to the concept of bird than penguin
Prototype Thoery
-They are formed from the overlap of examplars -> these are extracted from experience
-This is stored in memory to represent the category -> this represents the most common features with other members
-Exemplars included in a category are placed around that prototype -> similar items are stored closer to the prototype than dissimilar items
Typicality Effect
A preference for processing items close to the prototype
-Typical items are listed first
-E.g. Faster to identify apple as a fruit after the word ‘‘fruit’’ compared to a papaya
Context Affects Typicality Effect
Rate the typicality as a member of the category chicken
-Chicken in city vs. chicken in farm
Exemplar Theory
-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 a member of a category : retrieve some or all exemplars of category members and compute similarity to new item at the time of concept determination
-Explains how context can influence concept representations
-E.g. is this a dog? Let me think of my dog experiences…
Essentialism
The idea that certain categories have an underlying reality or true nature that one cannot observe
Green
Imagine you are asked to name all the colours you can think of. According to the typicality effect, which of the following are you likely to name first?
-Magenta
-Violet
-Green
-Turquoise
An Embodied View of Concepts
-Concepts are created in our environment and to meet goals
-Our brain’s sensory, motor and perceptual systems change depending on what we are accessing about a concept
Ad-hoc Categories
-A category concept that is invented for a specific purpose or goal
-Bringing together dissimilar members into a temporary category
-Related to creaitivity
Embodiment and the Brain
-Knowledge is stored as sensorimotor neural representations across our brains
-The neural representations that is accessed will depend on the what information is required
Perceptual Symbols System
-Rejects idea that ideas are abstract
-Perception and conceptual knowledge are linked as ‘perceptual symbols’
-Activating a concept will engage certain sensory-perceptions to engage mental simulation as a function of the goals of the current task
-Importance of perception but also goals in storing and accessing knowledge
Property Verification Task: Does this percept match the objet?
-Participants are faster to respond to this task if a previous trial asked about a feature from the same sense/percept (percept match trials) than another perceptual feature
-Evidence that concepts are represented via senses/perceptions
Brain Representations
-MRI scanner, participants passively read action word (pick, kick, lick)
-Specific brain regions that process movements associated with those words were active (fingers, foot, tongue)
-Evidence that concepts are rooted in motor and sensory systems in the brain
Neuropsychological Case Studies
-Brain injury
-Some have selective impairment in naming living things
-Some have selective impairment in naming non-living things
-Are concepts organized by living versus non-living domains in the brain?
Sensory Functional Theories
-Concepts represented by defining features
-Living things are defined by visual features (visual processing regions engaged when accessing these concepts)
-Inanimate object (tools) are defined by functional features (motor cortical regions engaged when accessing these concepts)
