Concepts and Categorisation Flashcards
concept
mental representation useful for cognitive efficiency
categorisation
process by which things are placed into groups
reduces complexity of environment
Conjunctive rule
logical relation ‘and’
disjunctive rule
logical relation ‘or’
conditional rule
logical ‘if then’ relation
bi-conditional rule
logical ‘if then’ relation in both directions
attributes
distinct features of objects
rule
logical relationship between attributes
exemplar
object that satisfies a concept
Attribute learning
frequency theory - more exposure = quicker learning
Superordinate level
highest level of abstraction (furniture)
Subordinate level
lowest level of abstraction specific types of object (dining room chair)
Basic level
recognised more quickly by non experts
children learn these first - most used (chair)
Family resemblance
measured by the number of shared attributes
higher family resemblance = more typical
Typicality
differences in how well members relate to their category
intension
set of attributes that define what it is to be a member of the concept
extension
set of entities that are members of the concept
Prototype view
average of all members, most typical
Exemplar view
nearest neighbour rule: select category that has member with most overlap with
semantic networks
how concepts are associated in the mind
spreading activation
when a node is activated, activity spreads out along all connected links and are more easily accessed from memory
lacks falsifiability
Connectionist Approach
input units - activated by stimulation from environment
- hidden units - output units
knowledge represented in distributed activity of many units
Error signal
difference between actual activity of each output unit and the correct activity
Learning occurs
networks respond to stimulus provided with correct response
modifies responding to match correct response and repeats until error signal = 0
