Week 13 Readings Flashcards
What is a category?
A set of entities that are equivalent in some way. Usually the items are similar to one another.
What is a concept?
The mental representation of a category.
How do concepts help in new situations?
Concepts allow people to identify objects, understand their purpose, and predict their use, even if the specific objects are unfamiliar.
Do animals have concepts?
Yes, animals have simpler concepts relevant to their lives, such as a squirrel’s concept of predators, but they lack the ability to understand complex concepts like humans do.
How does typicality influence category membership judgments?
Typical items are judged as category members more often than atypical ones (Hampton, 1979).
How does typicality affect the speed of categorization?
Categorization is faster for typical items compared to atypical ones (Rips, Shoben, & Smith, 1973).
Which members of a category are learned first?
Typical members are learned before atypical ones (Rosch & Mervis).
How does typicality affect learning a category?
Learning a category is easier when typical examples are provided (Mervis & Pani).
How does typicality impact language comprehension?
References to typical members are understood more easily in language comprehension (Garrod & Sanford, 1977).
How does typicality influence language production?
In language production, people tend to mention typical items before atypical ones (e.g., “apples and lemons” rather than “lemons and apples”) (Onishi, Murphy, & Bock, 2008).
What is the family resemblance theory by Rosch and Mervis (1975)?
It suggests that items are typical if they (a) have features frequent in the category and (b) lack features frequent in other categories.
Robins have features common among birds (e.g., flying, singing, nesting in trees) and lack features common in other categories, unlike penguins, which share features with fish (e.g., swimming).
What do the results of Rosch and Mervis’s experiments suggest about category learning and typicality?
Items with frequent category-specific features are learned faster and considered more typical, while shared features with other categories hinder learning.
What is the basic level of categorization?
It is the category level that is neither too specific nor too general, providing a “just right” level of specificity, such as “bear” instead of “northern brown bear” or “animal.”
What did Rosch et al. (1976) find when asking subjects to label pictures?
Most names provided were at the basic level (1,595 names), with only 14 being more specific (subordinate) and only one being more general (superordinate).
How does the frequency of basic-level labels, subordinate and superordinate labels compare in printed text?
Basic-level labels are much more frequent than both subordinate and superordinate labels (e.g., Wisniewski & Murphy, 1989).
Why is the basic level not universal?
It varies with culture, knowledge, and familiarity.
- Industrialized societies use broader terms (e.g., “tree”), while less industrialized ones use specifics (e.g., “elm”).
- Experts use more specific terms, like “sparrow” or “roofing hammer.”
- Categorization depends on knowledge, interests, and context.
Why are basic-level categories preferred?
They are more differentiated: members are similar to each other and distinct from other categories.
- Superordinate categories (e.g., “furniture”) are less useful because their members share few features.
- Subordinate categories (e.g., “desk chair”) are less distinct, making it harder to classify objects.
Experts have different knowledge, making subordinate categories more differentiated for them.
What is the main idea behind prototype theory?
It proposes that categories are represented by a general description or “prototype” with weighted features, and classification is based on how well an item matches these features.
Why are typical category members easier to classify in prototype theory?
They have more, highly weighted features that match the prototype closely.
How does exemplar theory differ from prototype theory?
Exemplar theory claims that categories are represented by memories of specific examples, not a summary representation.
New items are compared to stored exemplars, and similarity scores are calculated for each category. The category with the highest score is chosen.
What experimental evidence supports exemplar theory?
Studies show that people often rely on similarity to remembered items, even when it contradicts learned rules (e.g., Allen & Brooks, 1991).
What are the limitations of experiments supporting exemplar theory?
They often involve small sets of exemplars repeatedly studied, unlike real-world categorization.
Do researchers favor one theory over the other?
Many believe concepts involve multiple systems, combining prototypes, exemplars, and rules depending on context.
General descriptions (e.g., “dogs have four legs”), specific exemplars (e.g., family dog), and rules (e.g., a strike in baseball) can all contribute to categorization.
How does the knowledge approach to concepts differ from prototype and exemplar theories?
The knowledge approach emphasizes that concepts are informed by our understanding of real-world structures, using prior knowledge to learn and reason about new concepts, whereas prototype and exemplar theories focus only on descriptions or examples without such constraints.
What is psychological essentialism?
Psychological essentialism is the belief that certain categories, like dogs, have an underlying essence that causes their defining features, such as barking and having fur. This belief influences how people categorize items, assuming that the essence is present even when observable features vary.
How is essentialism shown in Keil’s (1989) experiment?
Participants believed a raccoon altered to look like a skunk was still a raccoon, demonstrating the belief that its essence cannot change, unlike artifacts such as a coffeepot turned into a bird feeder.
How does essentialism apply to human categories?
Essentialism can lead to beliefs about fixed group characteristics, which may reinforce stereotypes and justify discrimination, like the historical belief in “bad blood” to explain group differences.
What impact can essentialism have on group perceptions?
It can emphasize differences between groups, making it harder to change perceptions or challenge stereotypes, and may contribute to discrimination.
What are signs of essentialism?
- Binary Categorization: People tend to see objects or individuals as either fully belonging to a category or not, with no in-between. For example, a raccoon with skunk-like traits is still seen as a raccoon, not a mix.
- Resistance to Change: Once something is categorized based on its essence, it’s hard to change its classification. For example, the belief that a raccoon remains a raccoon even if it looks like a skunk.
- Transmission of Essence: For living things, the essence is passed down through offspring. People may believe that certain traits or behaviors (e.g., personality, abilities) are inherited and fixed, such as the idea that certain groups have “inherited” characteristics.
When visiting a friend with a new baby, you expect certain behaviors and know what gifts are appropriate, based on your knowledge of babies. This knowledge comes from seeing examples, hearing descriptions, knowing facts (e.g., babies have kidneys), and learning rules (e.g., babies have a rooting reflex). What types of concept representations are involved in this process, and which neural processes might be engaged?
This process involves:
- exemplars (individual experiences with babies),
- general descriptions (e.g., babies like black-and-white pictures),
- factual knowledge (e.g., babies have kidneys), and
- rules (e.g., babies have a rooting reflex).
Different neural processes are likely involved for each type of representation, with different brain structures handling memory for specific examples, generalizations, factual knowledge, and learned rules (Maddox & Ashby, 2004).
Exemplar
An example in memory that is labeled as being in a particular category.
Psychological essentialism
The belief that members of a category have an unseen property that causes them to be in the category and to have the properties associated with it.
Typicality
The difference in “goodness” of category members, ranging from the most typical (the prototype) to borderline members.
What is Piaget’s stage theory?
Theory that development occurs through a sequence of discontinuous stages: the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.
What are sociocultural theories?
Theory founded in large part by Lev Vygotsky that emphasizes how other people and the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the surrounding culture influence children’s development.
What are information processing theories?
Theories that focus on describing the cognitive processes that underlie thinking at any one age and cognitive growth over time.
What are the main types of theories of child development, and what central questions do they address?
The main types of theories of child development include:
- Stage theories (e.g., Piaget’s theory), which focus on whether children progress through distinct stages of development.
- Sociocultural theories (e.g., Vygotsky’s theory), which emphasize the role of culture, social interactions, and beliefs in shaping development.
- Information processing theories (e.g., Klahr’s theory), which examine the mental processes involved in thinking and how these processes change over time.
The central questions these theories address are:
1. How do nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development?
2. Does cognitive development progress through qualitatively distinct stages?
How do nature and nurture work together in visual development, and what example illustrates this?
Nature and nurture work together in visual development as biological maturation and environmental experience both contribute to processes like depth perception.
For example, the development of depth perception depends not only on the biological maturation of the brain but also on experiencing patterned light during infancy. If a baby is deprived of this experience, such as in the case of severe cataracts or blindness not corrected until later, depth perception remains abnormal even after surgery, illustrating the crucial role of the right kind of experience at the right time.
How do children’s genes influence their cognitive development through nature-nurture interactions?
Children’s genes influence their cognitive development by affecting their physical traits and temperament, which in turn elicit different treatment from others.
For example, genetically determined traits like physical attractiveness and temperament can lead parents to provide more sensitive and affectionate care to easygoing and attractive infants. This differential treatment, in turn, can contribute to the infants’ later cognitive development, highlighting the role of both nature (genetic factors) and nurture (parental response).
How do children actively contribute to their own cognitive development?
Children actively contribute to their cognitive development by making choices about what they attend to and engage with from a very early age.
For example, even 1-month-olds prefer to look at their mother’s face more than other women’s faces. As they grow older, children have more control over their environments, such as selecting activities and social interactions, which significantly influence their development.
For instance, children who choose to read more tend to improve their reading skills over time. Thus, the interplay of nature and nurture is shaped by both external influences and children’s own active contributions.
According to Jean Piaget, how does children’s thinking progress?
Piaget proposed that children’s thinking progresses through four discrete stages:
- Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)
- Preoperational reasoning stage (2 to 6 or 7 years)
- Concrete operational reasoning stage (6 or 7 to 11 or 12 years)
- Formal operational reasoning stage (11 or 12 years and throughout life)
Each stage involves different ways of thinking, with stages occurring in a fixed order and differing fundamentally in how children reason.
What is the sensorimotor stage?
Period within Piagetian theory from birth to age 2 years, during which children come to represent the enduring reality of objects.
What is the preoperational reasoning stage?
Period within Piagetian theory from age 2 to 7 years, in which children can represent objects through drawing and language but cannot solve logical reasoning problems, such as the conservation problems.
