Week 9: Concepts and Knowledge Representation Flashcards
What are concepts?
Ways of categorising items and ideas by their similarities
Internal psychological representations used to understand the world.
What are catergories?
A class of concepts that share common properties such as ‘fruit’ or ‘furniture’.
How does typicality affect catergories?
Members of categories are not always clear but - it’s suggested that categories are a continuum with some more typical than others
We have faster reaction time when concepts are more typical of a catergory
What is categorical perception?
How we perceive things to be in seperate catergories
We perceive changes and boundaries to be abrupt such as colour catergories even though they can vary along a continium
Is it easier to distinguish between two seperate catergories or two items in the same catergory?
We have faster reaction times when two items belong to seperate catergories
What are the two ideas for the origin of catergorical perception?
Linguistic relativist approach
Univeralist approach
What is the linguistic reltivist approach?
They argue that we construct catergories through language - language influences our perception and how we think
What is the universalist approach?
They argue that categorical perception is innate and universal
What do cross cultural studies show about the origin of CP?
Language is very important as catergories can vary depending on the dominant language in a country
What does developmental research show about the origin of CP?
There are innate factors that help us recognise the differences between catergories but language affects how we use these innate catergories
What does the hemispheric approach show about the origin of CP?
There is a biological componant to CP as there is a bias in the left hemisphere
