Exam #3 Flashcards
What are concepts?
Constituents of thoughts
Functions of a concept (4)
- Simple categorization
- Complex categorization
- Linguistic meaning
- Components of cognitive states
Abstract concepts (3)
- Time
- Space
- Behavior (morality, kindness, violence)
Classical view of concepts
- All members within a category share a set of features: binary distinction (belongs or does not)
- Members are of same status
- Clear-cut category boundary
- Object in higher level of hierarchy contains all the features from everything below
Problems with classical view (4)
- Not always easy to define features of category
- What is object has features shared by two categories?
- Typicality effect: not all members within category are of equal status
- Features of members not necessarily correlated with each other
Typicality effect
Prototype of category: categorized faster and more accurately, retrieved first, learned before other exemplars in category, highest similarity threshold
Probabilistic view
- Not all defining properties required
- Based on weight of certain critical properties
- Categorization determined by similarity threshold
Exemplar view
- Categorization based on similarity between exemplar (in memory) and category
- Allows for “fuzzy” boundaries
Example of concepts in classical view (defined with a set of features) (4)
- Physical state of object
- Even vs. Odd numbers
- Geometry figure
- Kinship systems
Categorization vs justification
- Judging by age–> perceptual features–> identification procedure
- Judging by defining feature (having a grandchild)–> core of concept
Category cohesiveness
Constraints for a category, to determine range, bad vs. good category, one feature implies the existence of another one
Constraints for a category
- Classical view: defining features (can be too broad)
- Probabilistic view: threshold category
- Exemplar view: lack of constraints
Cognitive economy
Everything can’t have it’s own category, but they can’t all be in the same category either
What level has the highest number of common features among members?
Basic level
Cue validity
How likely it is for a member of a category to possess a particular feature of an object (cue)
Holistic proceessing
Quick initial response, look at it as a whole
Factors affecting holistic vs. component processing in categorization
- Processing strategies
- Feature/component salience (most prominent features)
- Probability of feature being part of category
- Target category frequency
One major difference between person and object concept
Mutual exclusivity: objects within the same level can be mutually exclusive, person concept not mutually exclusive
Why is category range hard to define with exemplars?
Exemplars don’t have constraints
Smith & Minda (2002)-exemplar model
Subjects learn with only the set of exemplars they trained on= should be somewhat willing to call the prototype a member of the category because it is similar to the exemplars
Smith & Minda (2002)- prototype model
Subjects always categorize by assuming there exists a prototype= people should be much more willing to call the prototype a member of the category than they are another moderately-distorted exemplar
Exemplar-based similarity gradient graph
As distortion level increases, similarity rating stays mostly the same (flat typicality gradient)
Prototype-based similarity gradient graph
The more similar to the prototype (7), the similarity rating goes up (linear)
Kuhl experiment: category goodness rating
- Higher rating based on item closer to prototype
- Discrimination worse for items surrounding prototype
What cognitive processes are involved in object recognition (5)?
- Perception
- Attention
- Categorization
- Identification
- Memory retrieval
Gestalt principles
We look at objects more holistically rather than just their parts
View-invariant
There are features that are computed based on a large number of lower-level features, brain may have different cells tuned to different views of specific objects
What is one problem in recognition?
Variability in input, generalization of one exemplar to another
Face recognition and object recognition similarities (3)
- Both can be accounted for by recognition by components (RBC)
- Both have view-invariant features
- Similar 3D rendering of a face from a different view
Consciousness
Mental capability
Awareness
Actual experience from this mental capability
What type of consciousness is episodic?
Autonoetic
What type of consciousness is semantic?
Noetic
What type of consciousness is procedural?
Anoetic
Ebbinghaus’ classification of mental states (3)
- Recognizing and remembering a past event
- Involuntary reproduction of a mental state
- An effect of a past event on a subsequent event (priming)
What type of consciousness do amnesiacs possess?
Noetic and anoetic but not autonoetic
Tulving: synergistic ecphory
Assumes that your conscious experience of recalling info from memory is determines both by “knowing” and “remembering”
Tulving hypothesis
- More “remember” during free recall
- More “knowing” when need to be cued
Tulving graph
- Above curve: able to complete recall task
- Below curve: fail to retrieve enough info to complete the task
- Most autonoetic at bottom of curve (bottom right)
How is autonoetic consciousness measured?
Paired associate learning task: category-instance (flower-rose)
What type of memory is involved in a constant target?
LTM
What type of memory is involved in a variable target?
Visual working memory, uses prefrontal cortex
Woodman experiment results
- Constant target: reaction and set times about the same because of use of LTM
- Variable target: steeper slope because they had to use WM (more difficult)
Downing experiment results
- If WM guides selective attention= faster RT to probe on matched location
- WM stronger in the motion task than in discrimination task
- Slower RT to discrimination task than motion
Why are there faster RT to probe on mismatched items?
Weak neural responses to repeated items passively registered= competitive disadvantage compared to mismatched item (oddball effect)
