Concepts and Categorisation

Question 1

concept

Answer 1

mental representation useful for cognitive efficiency

Question 2

categorisation

Answer 2

process by which things are placed into groups

reduces complexity of environment

Question 3

Conjunctive rule

Answer 3

logical relation ‘and’

Question 4

disjunctive rule

Answer 4

logical relation ‘or’

Question 5

conditional rule

Answer 5

logical ‘if then’ relation

Question 6

bi-conditional rule

Answer 6

logical ‘if then’ relation in both directions

Question 7

attributes

Answer 7

distinct features of objects

Question 8

rule

Answer 8

logical relationship between attributes

Question 9

exemplar

Answer 9

object that satisfies a concept

Question 10

Attribute learning

Answer 10

frequency theory - more exposure = quicker learning

Question 11

Superordinate level

Answer 11

highest level of abstraction (furniture)

Question 12

Subordinate level

Answer 12

lowest level of abstraction specific types of object (dining room chair)

Question 13

Basic level

Answer 13

recognised more quickly by non experts

children learn these first - most used (chair)

Question 14

Family resemblance

Answer 14

measured by the number of shared attributes

higher family resemblance = more typical

Question 15

Typicality

Answer 15

differences in how well members relate to their category

Question 16

intension

Answer 16

set of attributes that define what it is to be a member of the concept

Question 17

extension

Answer 17

set of entities that are members of the concept

Question 18

Prototype view

Answer 18

average of all members, most typical

Question 19

Exemplar view

Answer 19

nearest neighbour rule: select category that has member with most overlap with

Question 20

semantic networks

Answer 20

how concepts are associated in the mind

Question 21

spreading activation

Answer 21

when a node is activated, activity spreads out along all connected links and are more easily accessed from memory
lacks falsifiability

Question 22

Connectionist Approach

Answer 22

input units - activated by stimulation from environment
- hidden units - output units
knowledge represented in distributed activity of many units

Question 23

Error signal

Answer 23

difference between actual activity of each output unit and the correct activity

Question 24

Learning occurs

Answer 24

networks respond to stimulus provided with correct response

modifies responding to match correct response and repeats until error signal = 0