Knowledge Flashcards
What is conceptual knowledge?
enables us to recognise objects and events and to make inferences about their properties.
What is a concept?
Mental representation used for a variety of cognitive functions.
Why are categories useful?
Provides pointers to knowledge, easier to identify information.
Helps to understand previous cases we have not already encountered.
Provides general knowledge about an item.
What is family resemblance in categories?
Certain types of features can be similar across items making them one caatagory.
What is the prototype approach?
Characteristic features that describe what members of that concept are like, an average of category members encountered in the past. Not all prototypes are required to be in the category.
What is it referred to if a category member closely resembles the category prototype?
High prototypicality.
What is it referred to if a category member does not closely resemble the category prototype?
Low prototypicality.
What is the exemplar approach?
Concept is represented by multiple examples rather than prototypes, they are used to categorise and compare new items.
What is a similarity and difference to the prototype view to the exemplar view?
Similar-representing a category is not defining it.
Different- Representation is not abstract as it uses real members of the category not just characteristics.
Characteristics of the prototype approach?
Fast and efficient, facilitates categorisation and easy to deal with variables.
Characteristics of the exemplar approach?
Explains typicality effect, easily takes into account atypical cases and easy to deal with variables.
What is hierarchical organisation?
Splitting the main category up into smaller subsections.
What is meant by the term psychologically privileged?
the idea that the characteristic that is the basic category is used the most.
What is the name of the representation os the arrangement of concepts?
Semantic networks.
What is semantic dementia?
Progressive neurological disorder which people loose specific knowledge first and loss of memory follows the hierarchy from specific to general information. Gradual disintegration of concepts and categories follow opposite direction as in which children acquire knowledge.
