Lesson 8 - Concepts

Question 1

Inference

Answer 1

refers to the logical interpretations and conclusions that were never part of the original stimulus material.

Question 2

Semantic memory

Answer 2

refers to our organized knowledge about the world.

Question 3

Episodic Memory

Answer 3

contains information about events that happen to us

Question 4

category

Answer 4

is a set of objects that belong together

Question 5

concept

Answer 5

refers to your mental representations of a category

Question 6

situated cognition approach

Answer 6

we make use of information in the immediate environment or situation

Question 7

prototype

Answer 7

is the item that is the best, most typical example of a category

Question 8

prototype approach

Answer 8

you decide whether a particular item belongs to a category by comparing this item with a prototype. If the item is similar to the prototype, you include that item within this category.

Question 9

prototypicality

Answer 9

the degree to which they are representative of their category

Question 10

graded structure

Answer 10

begins with the most representative or prototypical members, and it continues on through the category’s nonprototypical members

Question 11

typicality effect

Answer 11

occurs when people judge typical items ( prototypes) faster than items that are not typical ( nonprototypes)

Question 12

semantic priming effect

Answer 12

means that people respond faster to an items if it was preceded by an item with similar meaning

Question 13

Family resemblance

Answer 13

means that no single attribute is shared by all examples of a concept; however, each example has at least one attribute in common with some other example of the concept.

Question 14

superordinate-level categories

Answer 14

which means that they are higher-level or more general categories. “ Furniture”, “animal”, “tool” are all examples of superordinate-level categories

Question 15

Basic -level categories

Answer 15

are moderately specific. “ Chair”, “dog” “screwdriver” are examples of basic level categories

Question 16

subordinate-level categories

Answer 16

refer to lower level or more specific categories. “ Desk chair”, “collie”, and “ Phillips screwdriver” are all examples of subordinate categories.

Question 17

examplar approach

Answer 17

argues that we first learn information about some specific examples of a concept; we then classify each new stimulus by deciding how closely it resembles all of those specific examples.

Question 18

examplar

Answer 18

each example stored in memory

Question 19

Comparing prototype and examplar approaches

Answer 19

The prototype approach proposes that your stored representation is a typical member of the category. In contrast, the examplar approach proposes that your stored representation is a collection of numerous specific members of the category.

Question 20

network models

Answer 20

of semantc memory propose a network-style organization of concepts in memory, with numerous interconnections.

Question 21

node

Answer 21

How netowrks models typically represent each concept, node or one unit located within the network

Question 22

ACT-R

Answer 22

is an acronym for “ Adaptive Control of Throught-RAtional”; this approach attempts to account for human performance on a wide variety of tasks.

Question 23

declarative knowledge,

Answer 23

knowledge about facts and things

Question 24

propositional network

Answer 24

a pattern of interconnected propositions

Question 25

proposition

Answer 25

the smallest unit of knowledge that people can judge to be either true or false.

Question 26

parallel distributed processing ( PDP) approach

Answer 26

proposes that cognitive processes can be represented by a model in which activation flows through networks that link together a large number of simple, neuro-like units.

Question 27

Connectionism and neural networks

Answer 27

Another name for the parallel distributed processing approach. THe researchers who designed this approach tried to construct their model by taking into account the physiological and structural properties of populations of human neurons.

Question 28

Four general characterisitcs of the PDP approach

Answer 28

1) As suggested by the name parallel distributed processing, cognitive processes are based on parallel operations, rather than serial operations. Therefore, many patterns of activation may be proceeding simultaneously. One process does not need to be completely finished before another process begins its operations.
2) A network contains basic neuron-like units or nodes, which are connected together so that a specific node has many links to other nodes ( connectionism)
3) The process of spreading information from one node to other nodes is called spreading activation. As the name “ parallel distributed processing” also suggest , a concept is represented bu the pattern of activity distributed throughout a set of nodes.
4) Consistent with the concept of situated cognition, the current context often activates only certain components of a concept’s meaning. If you stroll past the meat department at your grocery store, you won’t necessarily connect those plastic-wrapped items with the animal that clucks, pecks for food, and lays eggs.

Question 29

spontaneous generalization

Answer 29

using individual cases to draw inferences about general information

Question 30

default assignment

Answer 30

based on information from other similar people or objects

Question 31

connection weights

Answer 31

determine how much activation one unit can pass on to another unit. As you learn more information, the value of these weights will change

Question 32

graceful degradation

Answer 32

The brain’s ability to provide partial memory

Question 33

Schema

Answer 33

our knowledge of information about familiar situations, behaviour, and other “ packages” of things we know.

Question 34

heuristic

Answer 34

schemas are one kind of heuristic or a general rule that is typically accurate.

Question 35

script

Answer 35

is a simple,well-structure sequence of events that usually occur in a specified order

Question 36

life script

Answer 36

a list of events tht a person believes would be most important throughout his or her lifetime

Question 37

Boundary extension

Answer 37

refers to our tendency to remember having viewed a greater portion of a scene than was actually shown

Question 38

Abstraction

Answer 38

a memory process that stores the meaning of a message, rather than the exact words.

Question 39

verbatim memory

Answer 39

word for word recall

Question 40

false alarm

Answer 40

occurs when people “ remember” an item that was not originally presented

Question 41

constructive model of memory

Answer 41

people integrate information from individual sentences in order to construct larger ideas.

Question 42

Pragmatic view of memory

Answer 42

proposes that people pay attention to the aspect of a message that is most relevant to their current goal

Question 43

memory integration

Answer 43

our background knowledge encourages us to take in new information in a schema-consistent fashion. As a result, people may remember this schema-consistent information, even though it was not part of the original stimulus material

Question 44

Gender stereotypes

Answer 44

the beliefs and opinions that we associate with females and males

Question 45

explicit memory task

Answer 45

directly instructs participants to remember information

Question 46

implicit memory task

Answer 46

asks people to perform a cognitive task that does not directly ask for recall or recognition

Question 47

event-related potential ( ERP) technique

Answer 47

records tiny fluctuations in the brain’s electrical activity, in response to a stimulus

Question 48

Implicit Association Test ( IAT)

Answer 48

based on the principle that people can mentally pair two related words together much more easily than they can pair two unrelated words.