Concepts and Categories Flashcards
What do categories help us to do?
Catwgoies help us to predict things even when we have never seen that exact thing before because we know other things that belong to the same category
What is the purpose of thinking in general?
to solve problems
What are concepts and name two types.
Concepts are categories of objects, actions or states that share some attributes. these can be formal or natural.
What are formal concepts?
Formal concepts are expertise, they categorise objects by listing he common essential characteristics like a dictionary. they are a carefully designed set of rules with precise boundaries
What are natural concepts?
Natural concepts are a category of objects or situations based on peoples perceptions and interactions with them in the world based on exemplars. the boundaries are unclear.
What is a ad hoc category?
Focusing on a different dimension of a thing that is not immediately clear or first to mind.
Hpw do we know what something is, predict novel things and store formal concepts?
- what something is= determined by possession of critical features
- predict= hierarchical inheritance of attributes
- store= Only details relevant to a particular concept or level
How do we know what something is, predict novel things and store about natural concepts?
- What something is= our interactions with the world
- prediction= correlated features
- store= everything about everything
What are the different levels pf concepts?
Hierarchical model
- super ordinate (basic level like fruit or veg)
- basic (normal level we deal with, neither too or not inclusive enough)
- subordinate (very precise distinctions between rhings
What is some evidence with levels of concept model?
Collins and Quillian 1969 canary research.People responded faster to subordinate questions about its characteristics than super ordinate, suggesting that super-ordinate levels are father away for us to reach.
Speed of …. depends on the ….. travelled to find …..
regarding levels of concepts
response
distance
information
What are issues with the levels of concepts model?
There is contrasting theory that certain attributes seem to be more salient than others causing people to remember them better, not how far away they are.So speed of retrieval may be due to salience of material rather than the distance we go for it. (People will say salmons are pink before saying they have fins even though they are on the same level)
difficulty about being definitive about what defining attributes are (e.g. a game).
What are two explanations for speed of retrieval of characteristics of things?
- salience of certain attributes
- distance due to levels of concepts
