Task 2 - Concepts and Categorization

Question 1

Concept

Answer 1

Mental representation of an object, event, or pattern that includes the knowledge deemed relevant to it.
e.g. dog: animal, four legs, tail, reputation, etc.

Question 2

Category

Answer 2

Class of similar things (objects or entities) sharing either an essential core or some similarity in perceptual biological or functional properties

• things in category have common denominator
• organize our knowledge base

Question 3

Similarity-based category theories

Answer 3

Classical View
Prototype View
Exemplar View
-> categorization based on similarity of instance to an abstract specification or one or more exemplars,
-> focus on superficial, perceptual information about a particular object

Question 4

Explanation-based category theories

Answer 4

Schemata view
Knowledge-Based View
-> classification based on meaningful relationships among instances and categories
-> focus on deeper knowledge derived info about object

Question 5

Prototype View

Answer 5

• no necessary-and-sufficient feature list
• objects are compared to prototype (more similar, higher prototypicality)
• > there are core representations but no rigid boundaries
• > basic, subordinate, superordinate levels of categories

Question 6

Pros and cons of Prototype view

Answer 6

Pros: explains typicality perception, explains difficulty of strict definitions for objects and why some classifications are easy and others hard
Cons:
-doesn’t explain limits of conceptual boundaries and doesn’t explain how typicality varies with changing contexts

Question 7

Classical View

Answer 7

Classification based on all examples of instances of a concept sharing features

• > every member of category must have certain feature(s)
• all members within category are equal

Question 8

Cons of Classical View

Answer 8

Cons

• different members of categories are judged as varying in fitting (some are more typical than others)
• some concepts don’t have clearly defined boundaries

Question 9

Exemplar View

Answer 9

Concepts include representations of at least some actual instances

• > new instances are compared to previously stored instances
• > typical instances more likely to be stored

Question 10

Exemplars

Answer 10

Previously stored instances of a member of a category

Question 11

Pros & Cons of the Exemplar View

Answer 11

Pros:
explains inability to state necessary and defining features + difficulty of categorizing atyptical instances
Cons:
too unconstrained, doesn’t explain which instances will be exemplars

Question 12

Schemata View

Answer 12

Concepts as schemata

• > frameworks of knowledge
• > hierarchically organized: sub-/superschemata
• doesn’t define clear boundaries, not empirically testable

Question 13

Knowledge-Based View

Answer 13

Objects and events are classified by people using their knowledge of how the concept is organized to justify classification and explain it (not just comparing features or physical aspects)

Question 14

Concept Attainment Strategies

Answer 14

• Simultaneous scanning
• Successive scanning
• Conservative focusing

Question 15

Simultaneous scanning

Answer 15

• figuring out hypothesis to which each object is relevant and consider maximum number of hypotheses by choosing optimat object at each point
• heavy demands on working memory
• > testing number of ideas at the same time

Question 16

Successive scanning

Answer 16

• less demading for working memory
• one hypothesis tested at a time
• tested until enough evidence gathered to form concept

Question 17

Conservative Focusing

Answer 17

• involves finding object illustrating a concept than choosing other objects varying from it on only one aspect
• efficient and easy, though efficiency depends on task conditions

Question 18

Prototype

Answer 18

idealized representation of some class of object or events
-> includes all features typical of the concept (prototypicality)

Question 19

Nonanalytic concept formation

Answer 19

• implicit learning
• requires people paying attention to individual examples, storing information and representations about them in memory
• classification: comparing new instances to representations

Question 20

Scripts

Answer 20

Successions of action tailored to specific situations (e.g. ordering at a restaurant)

Question 21

Nominal-kind concepts

Answer 21

Concepts with clear definitions

-> information about necessary and sufficient features as part of the concept definiton

Question 22

Natural-kind concepts

Answer 22

Things naturally occurring in some environment (e.g. a tiger)
-> may include more information about definitional or essential features (e.g. molecular structure)

Question 23

Artifact concepts

Answer 23

Things constructed to serve some function or to accomplish a task
-> may highlight information about object’s purpose or function

Question 24

Essentialism

Answer 24

Idea that objects, people, or events have a certain essence or underlying nature,
racism: essentialism where race is the essence and certain characteristics are assumed for a certain race

Question 25

Cognitive Economy

Answer 25

By dividing information into classes, the amount of information we need to learn, perceive, remember, and recognize is decreased

Question 26

Basic Level Categories

Answer 26

Entry point: first contact between object perception and semantic information

• > shifts downwards (more specific) as expertise grows
• > tradeoff between width of coverage and predictive value

Question 27

Concept formation

Answer 27

Abstraction of feature set

Question 28

Concept learning

Answer 28

Applying a concept and getting feedback

Question 29

Category components

Answer 29

• theoretical class of objects
• mental representations
• classification system

Question 30

Category types

Answer 30

Natural categories
Formal categories
Functional Categories
Ad hoc categories (not stable mental representations)