Exam 2 Flashcards
Compare the classical and family resemblance theories of categorization. Describe three experiments from your book and/or lecture which support a Family Resemblance (or graded structure) view.
Classical theory: Concepts have precise definitions based on defining features
Family resemblance theory: We group concepts into categories based on a similar prototype.
Rosch 1975, used vehicle & others in a study where participants where asked to rate the extent to which basic level examples represented their image or idea of the subordinate category. NEED TWO MORE XXX.
What are the claims of some of the other theories of categorization mentioned in lecture & text (e.g., Exemplar View, Psychological Essentialism, etc.)? How do these theories contribute to a fuller understanding of how people represent concepts?
Exemplar view: assumes that there is no single mental representation of a concept instead all one has in memory are the specific items or examples of the concept.
Psychological essentialism: belief that many categories have some essential components that explains how and why deep & surface features coalesce
These theories XXX
What are “ontological categories?” How do neuropsychology patients exhibit differential abilities to identify/define living vs. non-living entities? How can one indicate relationships among concepts in a semantic network?
(a) What are the various levels of linguistic analysis? (b) How does research in tip-of-the-tongue and lexical speech errors shed light on word retrieval?
Prosody, Phonology, Morphology
TOT state is due to partial activation of the phonological specification og a word, specifically for beginning sounds or letters
Compare the nativist theory of Chomsky to the empiricist theory of BF Skinner. Is there evidence for a critical period in language learning, as Lenneberg proposed? For which aspects of language?
Chomsky believed language learning to be innate, while BF Skinner argued that we develop our language through what we pick up from the surrounding environment. There is evidence for a critical period in language learning which seems to be when you are very young before age 10, however this seems to be for grammatical aspects of language, vocabulary and words in of itself seems to not necessarily be as strongly affected
Briefly describe the symptoms of Broca’s aphasia, Wernicke’s aphasia, conduction aphasia, and anomia. Where are these patients’ deficits (within the levels of analysis discussed above)? Be able to locate the place in the cortex which, when damaged, causes each of these language syndromes.
Broca’s aphasia symptoms are when one struggles to form complete sentences with poor and lacking grammar. Due to damage of left frontal inferior gyrus
Wernicke’s aphasia: patients can speak fluently however the sentences are often meaningless and filled with neologisms and paraphasias. Due to damage to superior temporal gyrus of left hemisphere
Anomia: constant tip of tongue state, patients consistently fail to retrieve names of common objects. There is semantic anomia which is a degradation of semantic knowledge, and pure anomia which is a perpetual ToT state with problems with phonological retrieval. Located in bilateral occipital and parietal cortex, along with some temporal lobe activation. Also left temporal regions in and around Wernicke’s area.
What are the strong vs. weak claims of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis? Of Universalism? What types of concepts have been studied to see if they are influenced by linguistic relativity?
What are Type 1 and Type 2 decision making? Explain the arguments and theories about whether people are rational or not when they make decisions. What did Tversky & Kahnemann mean when they said that the biases people use in reasoning/decision-making tasks are like “cognitive illusions?” Are they right? (b) What are some of the biases that people exhibit in decision making (and know how to apply them to new examples)?
Arguments about wether ppl are rational would be expected value theory which is making a gamble when decision making. EPV is rational decision making, however it represents what humans are SUPPOSED to do, but we don’t
Cognitive Illusions: ppl can’t help but make errors in reasoning even when they know about the errors
Heuristics
How can people’s reasoning/decision-making be improved? Why would frequency formats (such as those used by Gigerenzer & Sedlmeier) make people more accurate at estimating conditional probabilities?
Concepts, categories
Concepts are mental representations made up of one’s knowledge about a type of object, or an idea. Categories are the actual divisions that we use in dividing up the world
Nominal categories
Based on definitions set by humans
Natural categories
Objects found in the natural world
Artifact categories
Objects that are human made
Living/Nonliving & Animate/Inan. Categories
Living is any living thing. Nonliving is something that is not living. Animate is anything that moves and acts of its own will. Inanimate is anything that is consistently in a still mode, non living.
Superordinate
The most general concept
Basic level
Most commonly used level
Subordinate
Subcategories under basic level concepts (detailed)
Classical view
The view that concepts have precise definitions based on defining features
Necessary & jointly sufficient features
Apart of the classical view that defines categories
Family resemblance view
States that categories are based around one central prototype
Prototype
A part of family resemblance view. Basically what is used as reference for categories
Linguistic hedges
Qualifying phrases to indicate the peripheral status of some category members (“technically it is a fruit but it’s a veggie as well”)
Peripheral Members
Items that have minimal overlap with other items in the category
Characteristic features
The defining features of a specific category
Exemplar view
Assumes that there is no single mental representation of a concept, instead all one has in memory are examples of the concept
Psychological essentialism
Belief that many categories have some essential components that explains how and why deep and surface features coalesce (DNA in animals)
Knowledge-based theories
How we acquire, process and utilize knowledge
Ad hoc categories
Impromptu or improvised concepts with no obvious thread of similarity connecting the concepts
Category Specific Impairments
Systematic loss of knowledge about some categories while maintaining knowledge of others
Semantic Networks
A representation of semantic relation between concepts
Language
A form of communication, problem solving, remembering info, and a mode of thought
pragmatics
The study of the rules of social discourse
semantics
The study of meaning
propositions
A description of information
syntax
The study of the grammatical organization of sentences
morphology/morphemes
The study of the basic units of meaning that make up words. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language
free/bound morphemes
Free Morphemes are morphemes that can stand alone. Bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot stand alone
lexicon
Mental dictionary
inflection/prosody
Inflection is the tone/pitch of how things are said. Prosody is the study of the role of intonation, pitch, and stress or emphasis in language
phonology/phonemes
Phonology is analysis of basic units of sound in language. Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up a language
Places of articulation
Specific parts in mouth used to produce phonemes
Bilabial
bringing together 2 lips and bursting apart with air forced from lungs
Labiodental
contact with lips and teeth
Manner of Articulation
how words are said
Fricatives
sustained turbulence in sound stream
Lexical ambiguity
Activation of multiple meanings of words
Tip-of-the-tongue
When one is trying to recall a word or name without success but with a distinct feeling that success is on the horizon
Transmission Deficit Model
Explains that TOTs is caused by weak connections between the word and phonological levels
Skinner
Believed language is learned like every other behavior. Through imitation and reinforcement.
Associative chaining
Accounts for syntax. Stringing together words based on association strength of word pairs as they fit a context. All of grammar learned through associationist tenets
Chomsky
One of the first researchers to propose a comprehensive analysis of the formal aspects of language
Nativism
Learning of syntax is a biologically programmed skill, allowing children to abstract universal grammar from what they hear
Generativity
Novelty in children’s syntax & morphology
Modularity
Language is a domain specific skill. Independent from other cognitive abilities
Critical period (Lenneberg)
The time up to puberty in which language acquisition and development is most important
lateralization
Idea that different sides of the brain perform different functions
Genie
A girl who was locked alone somewhere from age 20 months - 13 years who was then trained to learn her first language, however proved to only develop to the ability of a 2 ½ years old. Becomes a justification for the CPH theory
Wernicke’s aphasia
Ability to speak fluently yet sentences are often meaningless
Neologisms
Creation of new nonsensical words common during Wernicke’s aphasics
Semantic/phonological Paraphasia
Semantic paraphasias are errors of various sorts of semantic info. Phonological paraphasias are mispronunciations
Anomia
Constant TOT state
Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
Language we use influences how we can think conceptually
Universalism
We all perceive concepts the same way, differences are in talking about these concepts. (some languages don’t have a direct translation but with description or using adjectives the concept is still understandable to non speakers of that language). Color is better explained by universalism.
Expected Value theory
Every decision is like gamble
Prospect theory
Subjective value: value of a choice is calculated based on the subjective probability RELATIVE to some reference point.
Asymmetry of Gains/Losses
displeasure associated with a loss is much more greater than the pleasure associated with a commensurate gain, often making people loss averse
Availability heuristic
Basing decisions on what is most accessible in memory (recency, distinctiveness, familiarity)
Representative heuristic
Basing decisions on whether elements of a problem match the prototypical features for some category – similarity based decision making
Conjunction fallacy
Not complying with the statistical notion that Pr(2 events/traits) is always less than the Pr(1 event) Likelihood that 2 things occurs always has to be less than the probability than 1 thing occurs unless both are 100%
Base rates
Statistical information
Anchoring & adjustment
Evaluate outcomes as changes from a reference point (items on sale are deemed a better deal)
Framing effects
How a problem is pitched affects decision making
Confirmation bias
Having a viewpoint and then seeking out more information to confirm this info
Bayes’ theorem
A mathematical formula for calculating conditional probabilitied
Frequency formats
More evolutionary natural way to reason
