lecture 8 - concepts and categorisation Flashcards
what is a concept
a mental representation useful for cognitive efficacy
what are the two types of concepts
- logical concepts
- natural concepts
what is categorisation
the process by which things are placed into groups
why do we categorise
- it reduces complexity of the enviro (cognitive economy)
- it allows us to recognise novel patterns
- allows us to establish hierarchy of objects
what is cognitive economy
reducing the complexity of the environment
what did roch provide evidence for in the natural categories
psychological privelage
what are the 3 levels of the natural categories as a hierachy
- global (subordinate)
- basic
- specific (subordinate)
explain the natural category - superordinate level
- highest level of abstraction
- consists of general categories
- consists of only a few attributes
- top level
- eg birds , furniture
explain the subordinate level of the natural category : as a hierachy
- lowest level of abstraction
- consists of specific types of objects
- consists of many attributes
- eg end of table, songsparrow
explain the basic level of the natural category : as a hierachy
- exists between the 2 extremes subordinate and superordinate
- is a balance between informativeness and economy (informativeness- of attributes the concept conveys )(economy - the summary of the important attributes)
- usually acquired first by children
- recognised more quickly by non experts
- eg table, sparrow
who usually aquires basic level hierachys first
usually first acquired by children
provide some evidence that Evidence that Basic-Level Is Special
- people almost exclusively use basic-lecek names in free naming tasks
- quicker to identify basic level category as a member of a category
- children learn basic level quicker than other levels
- basic level is much more common in adult discourse for superordinate categories
- different cultures tend to use the same basic level categories - at least for living things
how does basic level hierachys change within cultures
- different cultures tend to use the same basic level categories - at least for living things
what are the two types of characteristics proposed as occurring within a category
family resemblance
and
typicality
explain family resemblance characteristic
first proposed by Wittgenstein (1953)
is a continuous variable
is a measure of the overlap between members within a category
is measured by the number of shared attributes
how is family resemblance measured
is a measure of the overlap between members within a category
is measured by the number of shared attributes
explain typicality
refers to the differences in how well members relate to their category (e.g., collie vs. dachshund)
the higher the family resemblance the more typical the item is for common taxonomic categories
what happened in rochs experiment
- pps had to rate a list of words / objects
- judged on a scale of 1 (good example of a category ) to 7 (poor example)
rated birds and furniture