PSYC*2650 Chapter 9: Concepts and Generic Knowledge

Question 1

What are concepts?

Answer 1

Lists of necessary and sufficient conditions

Question 2

How can an individual’s concept knowledge be judged?

Answer 2

By examining their categorization skills

Question 3

T or F: The terms “concept” and “categorization” refer to the same thing.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

T or F: Concepts are organized in a hierarchical fashion.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

In terms of the organization of concepts, what is transitivity?

Answer 5

The ability to upwards in the hierarchy and make inferences about objects in certain categories

Question 6

In terms of the organization of concepts, what is property inheritance?

Answer 6

Lower level categories inherit higher level properties, but not vice versa

Question 7

What term describes the idea that members of a category resemble each other?

Answer 7

Family resemblance

Question 8

In general, what does family resemblance rely on?

Answer 8

Some number of features being shared by any subset of category members (even though these features may not be shared by all members of the category)

Question 9

T or F: The basis for family resemblance remains the same between subsets of a category.

Answer 9

False. It may shift from one subset of the category to another.

Question 10

What is a prototype?

Answer 10

The single “best example,” or average, identifying the centre of a category

Question 11

What is the “ideal” of a family?

Answer 11

A member with all the family’s features

Question 12

T or F: Each member of a family will share at least some features with “the ideal.”

Answer 12

True

Question 13

T or F: Everyone has the same prototype for a category.

Answer 13

False. Different people will have different prototypes based on their individual experiences.

Question 14

What is typicality?

Answer 14

The degree to which a particular category member resembles the prototype

Question 15

T or F: If there is a lot of similarity/typicality between something and a certain category, it is likely part of that category.

Answer 15

True

Question 16

What is graded membership?

Answer 16

The idea that some members of a category are more typical and therefore more firmly in a category than others

Question 17

Do people tend to find “typical” category members more or less attractive?

Answer 17

More attractive

Question 18

What is the procedure for a sentence verification task?

Answer 18

Participants are given simple sentences and must respond as quickly as possible whether it’s true or false

Question 19

During a sentence verification task, when there is close similarity between the item mentioned and the prototype for that category, are participants faster or slower when making their decision?

Answer 19

Faster

Question 20

What are participants asked to do in a production task?

Answer 20

They are asked to name as many examples in a category as possible

Question 21

Why do the objects named first in a production task yield faster responses in the verification task?

Answer 21

Because they both rely on an object’s proximity to the prototype

Question 22

What is involved in a rating task?

Answer 22

Participants must evaluate how typical an item is within a category

Question 23

What is basic-level categorization?

Answer 23

A level of categorization hypothesized as the “natural” and most informative level

Question 24

In terms of categorization, what is an exemplar?

Answer 24

A specific remembered instance of an item belonging to a category

Question 25

When discussing categorization, which two theories are often stated in opposition to each other?

Answer 25

- The prototype theory - The exemplar theory

Question 26

What type of reasoning draws on knowledge about specific category members?

Answer 26

Exemplar-based reasoning

Question 27

How is categorization using prototypes similar to categorization using exemplars?

Answer 27

They both involve comparing the resemblance between conceptual knowledge (of either a prototype or exemplar) and the actual object being assessed to determine if it belongs in a category

Question 28

Do prototypes provide economical representations or information about variability of a category?

Answer 28

Prototypes provide economical representations of what is typical for a category

Question 29

Do exemplars provide economical representations or information about variability of a category?

Answer 29

Exemplars provide information about variability within a category

Question 30

T or F: The mix of prototype and exemplar knowledge varies between individuals and concepts.

Answer 30

True

Question 31

What two factors may influence whether prototype or exemplar knowledge are used?

Answer 31

- The size of the category - How easily confused category members are with one another

Question 32

What guides inferences?

Answer 32

A broad set of beliefs

Question 33

What role do inferences play in categorization?

Answer 33

They help decide how categories are related to each other

Question 34

T or F: People are more willing to make inferences and generalize attributes from a typical case to the whole category, than they are from an atypical case to a category.

Answer 34

True

Question 35

What are stereotypes?

Answer 35

A cluster of interwoven beliefs about certain groups

Question 36

T or F: Stereotypes can serve the same cognitive function as prototypes.

Answer 36

True

Question 37

What is the out-group homogeneity effect?

Answer 37

Most people are convinced that their "in-group" is remarkably varied, while "out-groups" are homogenous

Question 38

How does a person's reasoning typically vary when thinking about natural objects vs artifacts?

Answer 38

People tend to assume more stability and homogeneity when reasoning about natural kinds than when measuring artifacts

Question 39

What is anomia?

Answer 39

A disorder in which the patient loses their ability to name certain objects

Question 40

How does the recognition of living and non-living things typically vary?

Answer 40

- Living: Recognition typically depends on perceptual properties - Non-living: Recognition typically depends on functional properties

Question 41

What is embodied/grounded cognition?

Answer 41

The proposal that the body's sensory and action systems play an essential role in all cognitive processes

Question 42

What is the hub and spoke model?

Answer 42

A proposal for how concepts might be represented in the brain

Question 43

According to the hub and spoke model, tissue in which brain area serves as the "hub" that connects and integrates information from many other brain areas?

Answer 43

Tissue in the anterior temporal lobes

Question 44

T or F: In a knowledge network, the associative links connecting nodes to one another are not constituents of knowledge.

Answer 44

False

Question 45

In a knowledge network, what does the retrieval of information rely on?

Answer 45

Spreading activation

Question 46

What is a proposition?

Answer 46

The smallest unit of knowledge that can either be true or false

Question 47

How is the propositional network distinct from the knowledge network?

Answer 47

It attempts to represent knowledge in terms of propositions

Question 48

Do propositional networks rely on local or distributed representations?

Answer 48

Local

Question 49

Do connectionists networks rely on local or distributed representations?

Answer 49

Distributed

Question 50

What is the difference between a local and distributed representation?

Answer 50

- Local: Each node represents one idea, so when thinking about a specific idea, a specific node is activated - Distributed: Each idea is represented by a pattern of activation across the knowledge network, rather than a certain set of nodes

Question 51

What is parallel distributed processing?

Answer 51

A system of handling information in which many steps happen at once and various aspects of a problem are represented in a distributed way

Question 52

T or F: Parallel distributed processing models have an excellent capacity for detecting patterns in the input they receive.

Answer 52

True

Question 53

Apart from the prototype and exemplar theories, what is another may the objects can be categorized?

Answer 53

By using theory-based concepts

Question 54

What are theory-based concepts?

Answer 54

An alternate proposal to categorization, stating that reasoning and knowledge can be used to create categories