Concepts

Question 1

Why categorize?

Answer 1

Cognitive economy (memory limitations)
Generalization (ability to infer unknown properties)

Question 2

Category

Answer 2

A group of objects or properties

Question 3

Concept

Answer 3

“Unit of thought”

Mental representation that picks out a group of objects or properties

Question 4

Classical view

Answer 4

Intuition: concepts have definitions

Concepts are defined by individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions

Question 5

Strengths of classical view (3)

Answer 5

Supports cognitive economy (only need definitions)
Generalization (Members have necessary features, so can infer from category membership)
Categorization (can check if sufficient conditions met)

Question 6

Weaknesses of classical view (3)

Answer 6

Hard to find definitions
Borderline cases
Typicality effect

Question 7

Typicality effect

Answer 7

Phenomenon where certain instances appear to be better category members than others
(Robins are better birds than penguins)

Question 8

Evidence for typicality effect

Answer 8

Faster RT identifying real examples
Faster RT learning typical than atypical for new categories
Typical learned before atypical in development
More likely to generalize from typical
Typical listed first if asked to list

Question 9

Prototype theory

Answer 9

Concepts have no definitions
Represented by a prototype
Category members based on family resemblance
Typicality is function of resemblance to prototype

Participants recognize unseen prototypes faster than unseen variants

Question 10

Basic level of categorization

Answer 10

Privileged, first to be identified

Best compromise between generalization and categorization