Conceptual Knowledge Flashcards
Conceptual knowledge
How we build our semantic memory; enables us to recognize objects and events to make inference about its properties
Concept
Mental representations used for a variety of cognitive functions
Categorization
The process by which things are placed into groups called categories
Categories are useful because they ______________
help understand individual cases not previously encountered
Categories involved “Pointers to knowledge”. What does this allow us to do?
It allows us to identify the special characteristics of a particular item
Caption
Knowing that something is in a category provides a great deal of information about it
Definitional approach to categorization
Coming up with a list of things that something needs to have to be a member of the category; DOES NOT WORK WELL
Family resemblance
Things in a category resemble one another in a number of ways, but do not have every single feature
The prototype approach
An abstract representation of the “Typical” member of a category
A prototype is the ___________ member of a category
Typical
A prototype is an ___________ people in the group but is not an actual _________________
average; member of the category
High prototypicality
A category member that closely resembles the category prototype
A high prototypicality for the group bird would be a ________
Robin, Blue Jay, or Sparrow
Low prototypicality
A category member does not closely resemble the category prototype
A low prototypicality for the group bird would be a _________
Penguin
There is a strong positive relationship between prototypicality and __________________________
Family resemblance
Low overlap = ______ Family Resemblance
Low
What is the typicality effect?
Prototypical objects are processed preferentially
Do we process high or low prototypical objects more rapidlY?
High
Sentence Verification Technique
Analyzing a sentence and saying if its true or false
Measured rate of reply
The questioner states “The apple is a fruit” and you reply with Yes in 200 ms. What does this examplify?
The sentence verification technique
The Exemplar Approach
The concept is represented by multiple examples (rather than a single prototype)
Examples in the exemplar method are ______________________
ACTUAL category members
Is the exemplar approach similar to the prototype approach?
Yeah
What is the difference between the prototype approach and the exemplar approach? ***
The exemplar is an actual member of the category, while the prototype is a not real average of all members
The pros are that _______ approach explains the typicality effect, easily takes into account atypical cases, and easily deals with variable categories.
The exemplar approach
_____________ may work best for small categories (EX: presidents)
Exemplars
__________ may work best for larger categories (Ex: birds)
Prototype
Hierarchical structure
Group diverges from a very vague topic (vehicle) which branches down to individual groups (car, truck, bike), which branches even more into more specific groups (Ford F-150)
Global (superordinate) classification
More vague; at the top of hierarchical structure
Specific (subordinate)
Ultra specific; at the bottom of hierarchical structure
In the middle of the hierarchical structure is _______________
Basic
Going from basic to global, we lose/gain information
Lose a lot
Going from basic to specific, we lose/gain information
Gain a little
Children learning _______-level concepts sooner than other levels
Basic
Semantic Networks
Concepts are arranged in networks that represent the way concepts are organized in the mind
Collins and Quillian Semantic networks
Model for how concepts and properties are associated in the mind
Node
Category/concept
Concepts are __________
Linked
Cognitive economy
Shared properties are only stored at higher-level nodes
What is inheritance in the hierarchical model?
The lower layers share traits with the upper level; They inherit the traits
Spreading activation
When you active a node, activity spreads across all connective links
Lexical decision task
Participants are given a string of letters and are asked if it is a word or not
Myer and Schvaneveldt’s semantic network experiment compared _____________________with ________________________
The reaction time of words associated with the reaction time of unassociated words
What were the criticisms of Collins and Quillan? (3)
- Cognitive economy
- COULD NOT EXPLAIN THE TYPICALITY EFFECT
- Some sentence-verification results are problematic for the model
Collins and Loftus update Collin’s previous hierarchical model by (3)
- Shorter links to connect relatively related concepts
- Longer links to connect less closely related concepts
- No more hierarchical structure; based on persons experience
Collins and Loftus semantic networks had some defects. What were the 3?
- Predictive for some results, but not others
- Generated multiple experiments
- Lacked falsifiability
What are the four proposals of how concepts are represented in the brain?
- Sensory-functional hypothesis
- Multiple-factor approach
- Semantic category approach
- Embodied approach
Sensory-functional hypothesis
Different brain areas may be specialized to process information about different categories
Double dissociations for categories “______________” and “______________” (artifacts)
Living things; nonliving things
Living things are described based on ______________________, while artifacts (objects) are described based on ______________
Sensory properties; functions
Semantic category approach
Specific neural circuits for specific categories (DIFFERENT WORDS ACTIVATE DIFFERENT PARTS OF BRAIN)
Multiple factor approach
Focuses on areas with distributed representations and crowding
Distributed representation
How concepts are divided within a category
Crowding
When different concepts within a category share many properties
The embodied approach
Knowledge of concepts is based on reactivation of sensory and motor processes that occur when we interact with the object
When do mirror neurons fire?
Fire when we do a task or we observe another doing that same task
Semantic somatotopy
Correspondence between words related to specific body parts and the location of brain activation
Do we have one explanation of how concepts are represented in the brain?
NO; use of all 4 approaches are used
