Module 9 - Knowledge Flashcards

1
Q

What is conceptual knowledge?

A

Conceptual knowledge is knowledge that enables people to recognise objects and events and to make inferences about their properties. It provides rules for creating categories.

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2
Q

What is categorization? Why are categories useful?

A

Categorization is the process by which things are placed in categories.
Categories are useful because they:
● Provide a lot of information about items within a category.
● Help us understand the environment.
● Enable us to take action.
● Help us understand the behaviours of others

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3
Q

What is the prototype approach to categorization?

A

The prototype approach to categorization states that membership in a category is determined by comparing the object to a prototype that represents the category.

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4
Q

What is a prototype? What is typicality?

A

A prototype is a typical member of a category. It is based on an average representation of members of a category.
Objects within a category can vary in typicality. High typicality means the member closely resembles the prototype. Low typicality means the member loosely resembles the prototype

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5
Q

What is family resemblance?

A

Family resemblance is the idea that things in a category resemble one another in a number of ways. This idea solves the problem that definitions often don’t include all members of a category. Items with high family resemblance are more likely to be judged to be good members of the category.

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6
Q

What is the sentence verification technique? What is the typicality effect?

A

The sentence verification technique asks participants if they think a statement is true or false.
The typicality effect is the finding that people are faster to verify statements about items that are more typical of a category (for example, verifying that an apple is a fruit is faster than verifying that a pomegranate is a fruit).

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7
Q

How does priming affect prototypical objects?

A

In a priming experiment, Rosch found that participants were faster to make “same” judgements for colours that were prototypical of the colour category (for example, good examples of green) than for non-prototypical colours. This suggests that hearing the name of the colour activated a mental representation of the colour, and that this representation was more strongly activated for prototypical colours.

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8
Q

What is the exemplar approach to categorization?

A

The exemplar approach to categorization states that membership in a category is determined by comparing the object to exemplars, which are actual members of a category that a person has encountered in the past. This approach explains the typicality effect by proposing that objects that are more like exemplars are classified faster.

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9
Q

Describe the three levels of categories in a hierarchical organization.

A

Hierarchical organisation is the organization of larger, more general categories that are divided into smaller, more specific categories. The three levels of categories are:
1. Superordinate level/Global level: The most general level of categorisation (for example, furniture).
2. Basic level: The level of categorisation below the superordinate level (for example, chair).
3. Subordinate level/Specific level: The most specific level of categorisation (for example, kitchen chair).

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10
Q

What is the semantic network approach?

A

The semantic network approach proposes that concepts are arranged in networks.

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11
Q

What is cognitive economy?

A

Cognitive economy is a way of storing shared properties just once at a higher-level node. This makes the network more efficient. However, it can create problems when not all members of a category share a property. In these cases, exceptions are added at lower nodes.

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12
Q

What is spreading activation?

A

Spreading activation is activity that spreads out along any link that is connected to an activated node. This can result in additional concepts becoming primed, making them easier to retrieve from memory.

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13
Q

How does the lexical decision task provide evidence for spreading activation?

A

In the lexical decision task, participants are asked to decide as quickly as possible whether a string of letters is a word or a non-word. Participants respond faster when two words are associated, suggesting that activation has spread from one word to the other.

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14
Q

What is the connectionist approach? What is parallel distributed processing (PDP)?

A

The connectionist approach is a model of how concepts are represented in the brain that is inspired by how information is represented in the brain. Connectionist models are sometimes called parallel distributed processing (PDP) models because they propose that concepts are represented by activity that is distributed across a network.

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15
Q

How are concepts represented in a connectionist network?

A

In a connectionist network, concepts are represented by a pattern of activity across the network’s units. Incoming stimuli activate input units, which send signals to hidden units. Hidden units then send signals to output units. Connection weights determine how strongly signals are passed from one unit to the next.

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16
Q

How do connectionist networks learn? What is back propagation?

A

Connectionist networks learn by adjusting their connection weights. When a network produces an incorrect output, an error signal is sent back through the network. This process, called back propagation, provides information about how the connection weights should be adjusted.

17
Q

What is category-specific memory impairment?

A

Category-specific memory impairment is a neurological condition in which people lose the ability to identify one type of object but can still identify other types of objects. For example, someone with category-specific memory impairment might be able to recognise tools but not animals.

18
Q

What is the sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis?

A

The sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis states that our ability to differentiate living things from artefacts depends on a memory system that distinguishes sensory attributes and a memory system that distinguishes functions.

19
Q

What is crowding?

A

Crowding refers to the fact that members of some categories (for example, animals) tend to share many properties. This may make it more difficult to distinguish between them.

20
Q

What is the semantic category approach?

A

The semantic category approach proposes that there are specific neural circuits in the brain for some specific categories. This approach suggests that the brain is organised into categories that are important for survival.

21
Q

What is the embodied approach?

A

The embodied approach states that our knowledge of concepts is based on the reactivation of sensory and motor processes that occur when we interact with an object. For example, when you use a hammer, sensory and motor areas of your brain are activated. Later, when you see the word “hammer,” those same brain areas are reactivated

22
Q

What are mirror neurons? How do they support the embodied approach?

A

Mirror neurons are neurons that are activated when a person performs an action and when they observe someone else performing the same action.
Mirror neurons support the embodied approach because they provide evidence that our understanding of concepts is based on our own experiences

23
Q

What is semantic somatotopy?

A

Semantic somatotopy describes the correspondence between words related to specific body parts (for example, “kick,” “pick,” and “lick”) and the location of brain activity

24
Q

What is the hub and spoke model?

A

The hub and spoke model proposes that different areas of the brain that process specific types of information (for example, information about what an object looks like, what it sounds like, and what it is used for) are connected to a central hub. The anterior temporal lobe (ATL) is the hub.

25
Q

What is semantic dementia?

A

Semantic dementia is a condition that causes a general loss of knowledge for all concepts. It is associated with damage to the anterior temporal lobe.

26
Q

How does transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) provide evidence for the hub and spoke model?

A

TMS studies have shown that:
● Disrupting activity in the anterior temporal lobe impairs people’s ability to name both living things and artefacts.
● Disrupting activity in the parietal lobe impairs people’s ability to name artefacts but not living things.