7 - Concepts And Categories Flashcards

1
Q

Concepts allow us to

A
  • apply general knowledge to new cases
  • draw broad conclusions from experiences
    Ex: know what a dog looks like, can identify others
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2
Q

What does it mean for a concept to be definitional

A
  • have definition in mind
  • for dog, could be animal with 4 legs that barks and wags tail
  • if something fits that definition, they’re classified as a dog
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3
Q

What problem do we have with defining concepts?

A
  • it’s always possible to find exceptions to our definitions

Eg. Tables are flat surfaces with 4 legs

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4
Q

How can we solve the problem of the definitional approach to defining concepts?

A
  • focus on family resemblance of members within a category
  • no ‘defining features’, have various features
    Take definition of category and add probabilistic statements (ex. usually have dark hair or glasses)
  • allows for exceptions, for the most part can capture main features of items
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5
Q

Define family resemblance

A

The more characteristic features an item has, the more likely you are to belong to that category but they don’t need to have all the characteristics

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6
Q

Describe prototype theory

A
  • the category is characterized by a central member that possesses all the characteristic features (the prototype)
  • take all features, create one prototype that becomes mental representation of what members of group look like
  • your IDEAL EXAMPLE, combination of all
  • category membership is judged based on typicality
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7
Q

Define typicality

A

How typical is the item that your experiencing
- how much does it resemble the prototype

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8
Q

Define graded membership

A

Objects close to a prototype are better members of the category than objects farther from the prototype

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9
Q

What are the 3 methods for testing the prototype theory?

A

Sentence verification task, production task, rating tasks

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10
Q

describe the sentence verification task

A
  • given sentence, have to state if the statement is true or false
  • the dependent measure is how fast they answer/make judgement
  • usually make correct judgment but timing is different
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11
Q

what is the theory behind the sentence verification task?

A

judgements about items that are more distance from the prototype take more time to make

*ex. robins are bird = small distance in prototype theory network vs penguins

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12
Q

what is the theory behind the production task?

A

participants generally name the most typical category members first

*these typical category members are also those that yield the faster response times in the sentence verification task

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13
Q

describe the production task

A
  • participants have to name as many items in a category as they can (ex. fruits/birds)

*you have network of all the birds you know, in center is prototype
*animals you come up with are compared with prototype, start with most typical

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14
Q

what’s the theory behind rating tasks?

A

items that are closer to the prototype are rated as more typical of the category

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15
Q

describe rating tasks

A
  • given a bunch of exemplars/items from a category and asked to rate them according to which is closest to the prototype
    *ranking from 1-7
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16
Q

what’s another name for items at the top of a rating task list?

A

priveleged items
*so close to prototype that if you think of the concept, you think of items at the top of the list
*top is apple, olives lowly ranked

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17
Q

basic level categories are…

A
  • represented by a single word
  • default for naming objects
  • easy to explain commonalities
  • basic categories learned first (ex. apple is one of first truits you learn)
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18
Q

what is the spectrum of basic level categories (what is this object)

A

too general > too specific
ex. furniture>bench>metal bench outside HSC

*the middle is the basic level category, has the biggest consensus among majority of ppl

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19
Q

define exemplar-based reasoning

A

in some cases, categorization relies on knowledge about specific category members (exemplars) rather than the prototype

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20
Q

summarize general differences between prototypes and exemplars

A
  • prototypes provide an economical summary of the category
  • exemplars provide info about category variability, but less economical
  • are easier to adjust categories based on exemplars than prototypes
  • instances of items in category
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21
Q

describe exemplar characteristics in more depth

A
  • have lots of exemplars in mind that represent the concept
  • the ones you interact with most will be at top of list
  • ex. don’t have single prototypical fruit to represent category of fruits but in your concept of fruits all of the examples of fruit are in there
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22
Q

is the prototype theory or exemplar theory better?

A

neither, sometimes rely on exemplar-based reasoning, and sometimes more prototype based reasoning

*in cases when we need to think of a specific example, the prototype theory has a hard time explaining it

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23
Q

describe prototype theory characteristics in more detail

A
  • provide us with economical summary of category, quicker understanding of what items in category look like
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24
Q

why is it important for exemplar theory to consider category variability?

A
  • more likely to welcome new items into category than if you had more narrow/low variabiliy set of examples of what belongs in category
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25
Q

which theory makes it easier to adjust categories

A

exemplars
*new item will have very minimal effect on what prototype looks like

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26
Q

which theory is involved in early learning?

A

early learning involves exemplars
*as you become more fluent with category, you develop prototypes for it
*experts go back to having individual exemplars (ex. birders)

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27
Q

how does experience affect the use of exemplars and prototypes?

A
  • experience often involves averaging exemplars to get prototypes
  • with more experience, we can use both exemplars and prototypes to ascertain category membership and recognize objects
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28
Q

in the textbook example of perfect memory, why might this be distracting?

A

generating a new exemplar of a person every instant they cahnge orientation
- changes in visual field are interpreted as prototypes

29
Q

how does typicality affect the categorization of concepts?

A
  • typicality to prototype/exemplar can help in judgement of category membership, but often they are distinct
  • atypical doesn’t necessarily exclude category members (ex. Greta G)
  • presence of all typical features does not guarantee category membership (fake money)
30
Q

how do we know children know the difference between natural/unnatural (categorizing concepts)

A
  • skunk can’t be made into racoon but maybe toaster could be remade into coffeepot
31
Q

The reason we can make distinctions between natural and unnatural is because _

A

we developed beliefs based on prior knowledge

32
Q

beliefs are developed through _

A

previous experiences

33
Q

what is most imporant in beliefs (categorizing concepts)?

A
  • belief in what is typical and required for category membership is the most important
  • have belief on what features should be
  • look to find important features in new cases to classify them to categories
34
Q

similarity judgements based on _ can be uninformative.

A

resemblance
(if you focus on the right properties, faces and outlets are the same thing)

35
Q

What should we do instead of solely focusing on resemblance when categorizing?

A

*base similarity judgement on important, essential properties (ex. know eye arrangement and movement = human, show emotion)
- shift away from merely focusing on the arrangement of features and focus on things that are more important to that category

36
Q

Name the 4 components under the “broad role of conceptual knowledge”

A
  1. Typicality influences category judgements
  2. Typicality effects reveal the substantial role of prototyes and exemplars
  3. When using a prototype or exemplar, you repy on a judgement of resemblance
  4. That judgement of resemblance depends on other knowledge (which attributes to pay attention to? Which to ignore?
37
Q

categorization enables us to _ and _

A
  • apply general knowledge to new cases
  • braw broad conclusions from prior experiencesi
38
Q

inferences can be guided by _ and _

A
  • typicality
  • theories/broader beliefs

*when we have finely drawn lines on what is/isn’t a category, we can make inferences about new situations
*use prior categorical knowledge to inform inferences

39
Q

if a behaviour is atypical _

A

you’re less likely to generalize that observation to the entire category of things

40
Q

the textbook example of people believing cows can have chemicals in them if they ate treated grass is an example of_

A

using broader beliefs to make inferences

41
Q

concepts can be characterized by:

A
  • features
  • goal-derived categories (ex. exercise equipment)
  • relational categories (eg. hunting)
  • event categories (eg.dates)
    *natural kinds vs artifacts
    *living vs nonliving
42
Q

how can you characterize concepts through features?

A
  • focus on probabalistic nature of features
    ex. 4 legs and smooth surface for tables
43
Q

how can you characterize concepts through goal-derived categories?

A
  • can categorize by goal or purpose of equipment/thing
    *exercise equipment = any object that helps you engage in exercise activity
44
Q

how can you characterize concepts through relational categories?

A
  • ex. hunter vs prey, parents vs children
  • based off specific relationships between items in category
45
Q

how can you characterize concepts through event categories?

A

defining things by how close/far they are in time/days

46
Q

how can you characterize concepts through natural/artifact?

A

all living and nonliving things that occur naturally in our environment vs things that have been manufactures by humans

47
Q

what happens in the brain when you are identifying natural/artifact and living/nonliving things

A
  • diff regions activated when looking/thinking about stimuli that belonge to natural category vs artifact
  • diff parts activated when focusing on living and nonliving things
    *some types of amnesia prevents you from remembering certain categories
48
Q

define embodied cognition

A

proposal that our concepts include representations of perceptial properties and motor sequences

49
Q

describe embodied cognition in more detail

A

*sensory areas and motor areas are active when thinking about certain concepts
(ex. thinking about motions involved in kicking a ball rather than abstract concept)
*relatively new concept
*BODY STATE IS EMBEDDED IN MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS

50
Q

define the hub and spoke model

A

a “hub” connects and integrates more specialized information (the spokes) from other brain areas
HUB = actual category

51
Q

damage to the “hub” leads to loss of _

A

general knowledge

52
Q

damage to the “spoke” leads to loss of _

A

specific knowledge

53
Q

what brain area shows evidence that the hub exists?

A
  • if anterior temporal lobe is damaged, you lose general knowledge about broad categories

*HOWEVER, aphasia/loss of memory you get is specific to items within category

54
Q

what links concepts together?

A

knowledge
- when we learn something new we don’t develop new node for it, connections with pre-existing ideas

55
Q

what is the knowledge network?

A
  • the idea that concepts are connected to one another and that info we have about these concepts is embedded within links
    *ex. animals>birds, cats, dogs>more specific examples of each
56
Q

nodes in knowledge network are created where _

A

most common things are shared
*no reason to have nodes for having a heart, breathing etc. cause all animals have that
*BUT get diff distances between concepts, ex. flying is farther away than ‘robin’ from bird
*push to remove redundancies

57
Q

how does feature distance affect reaction time?

A
  • signals take time to activate features that are further out
  • by counting the number of links we can predict reaction time
  • robin has a heart vs robin can fly
58
Q

some results are problematic with the travelling across network theory:

A
  1. sentence verifications are faster if the sentence is about a more prototypical stimulus
  2. The principls of “non-redundancy” does not always hold
59
Q

how does the principle of “non redundancy” not always hold?

A

there are situations in which the feature that is common across the entire concept seems to be replicated at the level of the items

60
Q

explain the first problem of travelling across network theory

A
  • robin is closer to prototype of bird while goose is farther waya
  • evidence suggest that it takes longer to make sentence verification judgements for geese than robins
    *all about links travelled doesn’t account for everything
61
Q

define propositions (propositional networks)

A

the smallest unit of knowledge that can be either true or false

62
Q

define nodes

A

nodes represent concepts, and linke to form complex concepts

63
Q

what’s an example of a complex proposition?

A

dog (agent) chases (relation) a cat (object)

64
Q

what are the 2 types of networks?

A

propositional and connectionist

65
Q

define propositional networks

A

local representations, each node represents one concept or idea
*have local connections between nodes to connect and create more complex ideas

66
Q

define connectionist networks

A
  • distributed representations, each idea is represented by a pattern of activation across the network
  • parallel distributed processing (PDP)
67
Q

describe parallel distributed processing

A
  • idea that you have a bunch of broad networks that can operate in parallel
  • can represent multiple categories at the same time, have connections between them as well
68
Q

describe connectionist nodes in more detail

A
  • have a bunch of nodes, all the patterns of activites of nodes together represents concept
  • have different prediction about how these networks operate and affect behaviour
    *slow because entire network dedicated to each concept