Task 2 - Object Categorization

Question 1

Prototypes

Answer 1

(not checklists)

• fuzzy sets that capture the context-dependent features of group membership
• -> often in the form of representations of exemplary members (actual group members who best embody the group) or ideal types (an abstraction of group features)

Question 2

stereotyping

Answer 2

the strict adherence to commonly held beliefs about social groups when judging individual members of those groups

Question 3

Essentialist beliefs

Answer 3

People with these beliefs hold that racial groups possess an underlying essence (often biological or genetic) that represents deep- seated and unalterable properties indicative of traits and abilities

Question 4

personal frame of reference

Answer 4

based on personal experience with nature

f.e. talking about a personal experience with an animal

Question 5

abstract frame

Answer 5

based on what they know about nature

f.e. characteristics of a bird

Question 6

exemplar view

Answer 6

categorising based on previously stores instances, exemplars

Question 7

schemata

Answer 7

between prototype and exemplar approach

Question 8

classical based approach

Answer 8

• Definitional approach – decide whether something belongs to a category by determining whether an object fits the definition of the category
• Categories are clearly defined, mutually exclusive & collectively exhaustive
• Doesn’t work as not all members of a category have the same features
• not typicality
• Ancient Greece
• assumes that concepts mentally represent lists of features
• Items are individually necessary and collectively sufficient

Question 9

Prototype-Based Approach

Answer 9

 Membership in a – category is determined by comparing the object to a prototype that represents the category
- based on an average of members of a category that are commonly experienced

Question 10

Family resemblance – Prototype-Based Approach

Answer 10

idea that thing in a category resemble one another in a number of ways (allows variation)

Question 11

Rosch’s experiment – Prototype-Based Approach

Answer 11

with the Dani people of Papua New Guinea, she concluded that when categorizing an everyday object or experience, people rely less on abstract definitions of categories than on a comparison of the given object or experience with what they deem to be the object or experience best representing a category (“prototype”)

Question 12

Priming

Answer 12

prototypical members more affected by priming as people create images of prototypes in response to priming (exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention)

Question 13

Examplar-Based Approach

Answer 13

• Like prototype approach involves determining whether an object is similar to another object

Question 14

Examplar

Answer 14

• (many examples, each of which are called an exemplar)
• actual member of the category that an individual has encountered in the past
• Store exemplars as separate, individuated memory traces, refer new items to these stored exemplars & include them in the category if they are similar enough  “slide carousel of instances”

Question 15

Examplar –> Advantages

Answer 15

1. Can more easily take into account atypical cases like birds that can’t fly (don’t become lost in the average)
2. Can deal more easily with variable categories like “games”

Question 16

Theory-Based Categorisation

Answer 16

• One decides whether something belongs to a category by determining whether the features of the test item are best explained by the “theory” that underlies the category

Question 17

Explanation-Based Categorisation

Answer 17

• Explanatory information is critical in making categorisation decisions

Question 18

Hierarchical organisation

Answer 18

large, more general categories are divided into smaller more specific categories

Question 19

superordinate level

Answer 19

global/broad (e.g. furniture)

Question 20

basic level

Answer 20

(e.g. table)

Question 21

basic-level effect

Answer 21

the level people tend to focus on (careful: only when not specialises in a specific category)

Question 22

subordinate level

Answer 22

specific (e.g. kitchen table)

Question 23

Racial Essentialism

Answer 23

a belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category

Question 24

Racial Essentialism

Answer 24

a belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category

Question 25

Essentialist theory – (Race-Based Categorisation)

Answer 25

belief that race is a real entity that consists of underlying essence, determining a person’s dispositions and is characterised by clear, unalterable physical & psychological markers

Question 26

Hyperdescent vs hypo descent

Answer 26

Hyperdescent is the practice of classifying a child of mixed race ancestry in the more socially dominant of the parents’ races. Hyperdescent is the opposite of hypodescent (the practice of classifying a child of mixed race ancestry in the more socially subordinate parental race)

Question 27

One-drop rule

Answer 27

individuals with any non-white ancestry are classified as members of non-white race

Question 28

Ingroup overexclusion perspective

Answer 28

effects of racial essentialism are due to the motivation to maintain ingroup dominance and membership purity

Question 29

Lay theory perspective

Answer 29

result from biased preferences in categorisation practices

Question 30

Lay racial essentialism

Answer 30

conceptualise race as a fundamental & meaningful source of human division that has an inherent, inalterable biological basis

Question 31

Domain specific

Answer 31

influences categorisation only in the racial domain

Question 32

Speeded colour discrimination task (Russian blues)

Answer 32

• Russians make linguistic distinction between lighter and darker blues
• Category advantage – faster in discriminating two colours when they fall into different categories (in English blue = blue so no category advantage in any condition)
• Category advantage was eliminated by a verbal but not spatial dual task
• Language specific representations seem to be brought online spontaneously during even rather simple perceptual discriminations

Question 33

disadvantageous of categorization

Answer 33

1. racism

2. loss of creativity