Topic 9: Conceptual Knowledge and Visual Imagery Flashcards
Topic 9
What is Conceptual Knowledge?
Ability to “recognize and understand” objects and what’s going on because of them
What is a concept?
A mental representation of what something is, or its meaning
What is it called when we organize concepts in our mind?
Categories
What is categorization?
The process by which objects are placed into categories
What is the definitional approach to categorization?
Decide whether something is a member of a category by determining whether the object meets the definition of the category
Does the definitional approach to categorizational work for all objects?
not all members of a category share the exact same features
What is the theory of family resemblance?
Idea that in most cases things in a particular category resemble each other in several ways
What previous problem does family resemblance solve?
Deals with previous problem in that there is no “strict criteria or definition” that every member must meet
What does family resemblance allow for?
Allows for more variation in a category
What is a prototype?
A typical member formed by avergaing all the category members we have previously encountered
- prototype is not an actual member of the category, just the average representation
After family resemblance, what did the focus shift to?
finding the average case
What is membership determined by?
comparing to a prototype that represents the category
What is prototypicality?
how well a member of a category represents the typical characteristics of that category
What is high prototypicality?
category member closely resembles the prototype; “typical”
What is Low prototypicality?
Category member does not closely resemble the prototype; “atypical”
What is the realtionship between prototypicality and behaviour?
how rapidly can people answer qestions about an objects category
What is the Typicality effect?
The tendency to judge typical items as members of a category more easily than atypical items
What does COWAT stand for?
Controlled Oral Word Association Test
What happens when you give a test of category fluency?
COWAT
What is the Exemplar Approach to Categorization?
An approach to categorization that involves determining whether an object is similar to other objects, but here by judging against exemplars
What is an exemplar?
using real examples; better accounts for atypical
Do we tend to learn categories by using categories or exemplars?
Tend to intially learn about categories by using prototypes, because we dont have a lot of exemplar to work with
As we learn more about _____we shift to using exemplars instead
“exceptions to the rule”
What is the Hierarchical Orginization?
Organization of categories in which larger, more general categories are divided into smaller, more specfifc categories
- Which can then also be divided
What does Hierarchial Organization result in?
Results in different levels we can use to describe categories
What are the three different levels of categories?
- Global
- Basic
- specific
Why does the “basic” level appear special?
Tend to rely on the “basic” level when identifying something
Why is the global level category not great?
Going more global results in a large loss of information
Why is the specific category level not spectacular either?
Going more specific results in only a small bit of additional information
what could affect the different levels of categories that will be used?
Knowledge will impact this
What is the neuropsychological approach?
The neuropsychological approach to memory studies memory by examining the brain’s structure and function, using brain damage (lesions) and brain imaging to understand how memory processes work, and how different brain regions contribute to different types of memory
What concept did Warrington and Shallice (1984) found?
Category-Specific memory impairment
What is Category-Specific Memory Impairment?
Difficulty recognizing objects specific to (usually) a single category; retained ability for other categories
What is the Boston Naming Test?
a neuropsychological assessment tool that evaluates visual confrontation naming abilities, assessing an individual’s capacity to name objects presented as line drawings, graded in difficulty
What is the Sensory-Functional Hypothesis
Proposed that this selective impairment occurs because we distinguish between living and non-living things based on different properties
What details help distinguish between living things?
Sensory details
- Functionally they are quite similar but it takes sensory details to distinguish them
What details help distinguish artifacts, such as tools?
Functional Details
- The sensory features are similar so we use functional details to distinguish them
Is there a simple distincition between sensory and function details?
Probably not
What is a phenomenon with some patients who test poorly on sensory functioning?
They are better able to identify animals rather than artifacts
What is a phenomenon with some patients who cannot identify non-mechanical artifacts?
They can identify mechanical artifacts
What is a phenomenon with some patients who cannot identify small artifacts (ex. tools)?
They can identify large artifacts (ex. Vehicles)
What is the semantic category approach?
Proposes there are specific nerual circuits for specific categories
What is Semantic Dementia?
A Primary Progressive Aphasia subtype of Frontotemporal dementia
- Predominantly issues with the anterior temporal lobes
What does Semantic Dementia cause? Sign and Symptoms?
- Loss of semantic memory
- Words essentially have no meaning
- Poor word comprehension
What is Anomia?
a form of aphasia in which the patient is unable to recall the names of everyday objects.
What learning disabilities present with Semantic Dementia?
Dyslexia and Dysgraphia
What is Mental Imagery?
The ability to re-create the sensory world in the absence of sensory stimuli
- Can include all sensory systems
- Research has predominately been visual
What is visual Imagery?
“Seeing” something in the absence oh phyiscal visual stimuli
What did Paivio (1963) propose?
Conceptual peg hyopthesis to explain concrete nouns create visual images that other words can more easily “hang on to” = + memory recall
What did Shepard and Metzlar (1971) study?
Studied reponse times to mental rotation tasks
- Involves mentally rotating the visual image of an object in your mind
What questions did Shepard and Metzlar (1971) raise with their research?
What if you could do this task for real, using your actual eyes?
Are visual perception and visual imagery the same process?
Are visual perception and visual imagery the same process?
Yes and No
How do mental images tend to differ from mental perception?
Mental images tend to differ in that they are often not as vivid or long lasting
What do both imagery and perception have in common?
Both involve spatial representations of objects… the object exists in a space
What is mental scanning?
Process of visual imagery in which participants create mental images in their minds and then scan them in space
If imagery, like perception, is spatial, what is going to take longer to do mentally?
It should takae longer to mentally travel to places that are further apart
How are perception & imagery affected by the size of an object in a person’s visual field?
Perception:
- From far away, it fills only a small portion of ur visual field= difficult to perceive small details
- As you move closer, it fills more of your visual field= perceive more easily
What does the evidence from brain imaging show about perception and imagery?
Evidence from brain imaging as well that perception and imagery overlap
What do single neuron recordings show with imagery in the brain?
Imagery neurons that fire the same way when “seeing” and “imagining”
What in the brain is incredibly difficult to study just one of or small groups of?
Neurons or Neuron Groups in humans
What are small occipital differences?
where retinal signals first get processed in the brain
If you lose the ability to examine visual imagery will perception be impacted? vice versa?
Yes… sometimes
What is Unilateral Neglect? What can cause this?
- Patients ignore one half of the visual world
- Injury to the parietal lobes
What is the result of Unilateral Neglect
Both perceptual neglect and visual imagery neglect
So, is it a 100% overlap between Imagery and perception?
Probably not
- Sometimes perception can be impaired, but imagery can be perserved
What is visual agnosia?
a neurological disorder that makes it difficult to recognize objects using sight
Who was struck by a car while driving and what did he suffer with?
C.K. & Visual Agnosia
What is Aphantasia?
a characteristic that describes people who are unable to visualize images in their minds
What is Hyperphantasia?
Hyperphantasia is a condition where someone has extremely vivid mental imagery.
