Ch. 9

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT a function of semantic knowledge?

a. helps us predict how to behave in a new situation
b. helps us make inferences about information
c. helps us create an organized, connected understanding of the world
d. helps us create meaningful connections to other people

Answer 1

d. helps us create meaningful connections to other people

Correct, semantic memory is storage for previous experiences. It doesn’t directly connect us to other people.

Question 2

A _ isa set of items that are perceptually, biologically or functionally similar

Answer 2

category

Question 3

Exemplars are individual examples of _

Answer 3

categories

Question 4

A _ is a mental representation of objects, ideas or events

Answer 4

concept

Question 5

_ are groupings of things “out there” in the world that go together whereas _ are groupings inside our minds

Answer 5

categories; concepts

Question 6

Artificial intelligence has a problem with _ knowledge, since they are not as clever at inferences; they require knowledge that is specifically programmed into the computer

Answer 6

commonsense

Question 7

Which of the following statements is correct?

a. Poodle is an exemplar of the dog category
b. Poodle is an exemplar of a dog feature
c. Poodle is a feature of the dog category
d. Poodle is a category of a dog concept

Answer 7

a. Poodle is an exemplar of the dog category

Correct! Poodles would be an “example” (i.e., exemplar) of an item stored in the category for dogs.

Question 8

Consider Medin’s definition of concepts. When do you predict that infants would develop a concept of “cup”?

a. when their language has developed enough to produce the word
b. after they see an adult name and point to a cup
c. when their motor skills have developed enough to use a cup
d. when their visual system has developed enough to see a cup clearly

Answer 8

c. when their motor skills have developed enough to use a cup

Correct! A baby will develop the concept of a cup when they are able to interact with it and understand how it can be used (they understand the meaning of the object).

Question 9

Classical approach of categories use an approach that is …

Answer 9

all-or-nothing

e.g., birds are ‘birdy’, or not

Question 10

T or F: Rosch (1975) was a classical theorist (i.e., this bird is birdy, or not)

Answer 10

false

Question 11

T or F: Rosch (1975)’s study that asked participants to rate items based on how good of an example of a category an item was, in the same way as you did in the ‘birdy’ example. She found that not only could participants give ‘typicality ratings’ easily, but participants agreed on the ratings (i.e., chair is an exemplar of furniture, but a fan isn’t). This is an example FOR/AGAINST the classical approach to categorization

Answer 11

against - if there is a spectrum, then items cannot be given clear features, therefore it is not classical

Question 12

Why is it a problem for the classical approach to categorization that people believe some category members are “better” exemplars than others?

a. because the classical approach believes that category membership relies on lists of sufficient features
b. because the classical approach does not allow for an individual’s value judgments
c. because it is nearly impossible to identify defining category features for most categories
d. because, according to the classical approach, category membership is all-or-none

Answer 12

d. because, according to the classical approach, category membership is all-or-none

Correct! It may be difficult to clearly verbalize and identify why some atypical items fit into a category.

Question 13

In a lexical decision task participants are asked to indicate as quickly as they can whether a string of letters is a word or nonword. This task can be used to demonstrate _ _. Participants will be faster to respond “yes” that banana is a word after reading a semantically related, typical category member (as in panel A) compared to after reading a less typical category member (panel B) or after a nonword (panel C).

Answer 13

semantic priming

Question 14

Imagine you are asked to name as many fruits as you can in 30 seconds. Which of the following are you most likely going to say?

a. apple, orange, banana
b. coconut, pineapple, guava
c. tomato, olive, squash
d. plum, apricot, pomegranate

Answer 14

a. apple, orange, banana
Correct! Apple, banana, and orange are considered more “typical” or common fruits for many, compared to a coconut.

Question 15

When giving typicality ratings for the bird category, where 1 is an excellent example and 7 is a terrible example, participants frequently rate a bat as a 6 instead of a 7. Why is this a problem for the classical approach to categorization?

a. because a bat doesn’t share very many features with birds
b. because a bat is unambiguously not a bird
c. because not all birds can fly like bats
d. because participants should know that a bat is a mammal

Answer 15

b. because a bat is unambiguously not a bird

You’re right! According to the classical approach, exemplars are either category members (if they have all the defining features) or they’re not (if they don’t have the defining features). That is, categorization is “black” and “white”; there is no room for “gray.”

Question 16

Consider Onishi and colleagues’ (2008) experiment in which participants had to reproduce sentences such as “A turkey and a robin took a walk around the lake.” What pattern of results would support the classical approach to categorization?

a. Sentence production would depend on participants’ familiarity with robins and turkeys.
b. Participants would not make any mistakes when producing the sentences.
c. Participants would take longer to produce sentences about turkeys than sentences about robins.
d. Participants would be equally likely to recall “A turkey and a robin took a walk around the lake” as “A robin and a turkey took a walk around the lake.”

Answer 16

d. Participants would be equally likely to recall “A turkey and a robin took a walk around the lake” as “A robin and a turkey took a walk around the lake.”

Correct! Onishi et al. (2008) found that subjects were more likely to recall sentences from memory first if they included typical, compared to atypical, category members. This supports the notion that typicality influences cognitive tasks.

Question 17

Which of the following is true of a prototype?

a. It is a mental abstraction that corresponds to a real-world object.
b. It shares at least one feature with all category members.
c. It has the largest number of characteristic features of all category members.
d. It corresponds to the most frequently observed category exemplar..

Answer 17

c. It has the largest number of characteristic features of all category members.

That is right! Prototypes are considered the most common features and have been researched through “family resemblance” studies discussed below

Question 18

Why are context effects a problem for the prototype view of categorization?\

a. because not everyone has the same idea about what “context” means
b. because prototype theory doesn’t explain how characteristic features can differ between contexts
c. because family resemblance changes across contexts
d. because prototype theory doesn’t account for individual differences in typicality ratings

Answer 18

b. because prototype theory doesn’t explain how characteristic features can differ between contexts

Correct. It is difficult to explain shared features between a penguin and a robin.

Question 19

According to _ theory, a squash is often considered a vegetable because it shares more features with many different vegetables than with fruits.

Answer 19

exemplar

Question 20

A _ includes features that are most common among category members, such as in the painting by Henry Walker Herrick that includes many of the characteristics features of birds

Answer 20

prototype

Question 21

Dopkins and Gleason (1997) had participants learn to categorize rectangles on a computer screen into two different categories. Participants were not given any rules to help them learn how to sort the rectangles, but they were simply told whether they had classified each rectangle correctly. What participants didn’t know was that the rectangles could be categorized by considering both their length and the position they appeared on the screen. One type of rectangle was usually wide and near the top of the screen (category 1) the other type of rectnagle was narrow and near the bottom of the screen (2). After many trials, participants were able to accurately categories the rectangles. this finding WAS/NOT expected because it HAD/NOT been known that we are very good at categorization even when we aren’t told how to do it

Answer 21

WAS EXPECTED;
HAD KNOWN

Question 22

Dopkins and Gleason’s (1997) participants categorized rectangles that could either be categorized as wide and high on the monitor (panel A) or narrow and low on the monitor (panel B). Once participants had learned how to categorize the rectangles, they were asked to categorize new rectangles that could belong in either category, like the one in panel C. The results showed that…

Answer 22

participants tended to categorize the new rectangles into the wide and high group (1) most often

Question 23

Dopkins and Gleason’s (1997) participants categorized rectangles that could either be categorized as wide and high on the monitor (panel A) or narrow and low on the monitor (panel B). Once participants had learned how to categorize the rectangles, they were asked to categorize new rectangles that could belong in either category, like the one in panel C. The results showed that…participants tended to categorize the new rectangles into the wide and high group (1) most often. This suggested that decisions were based their categorization on similarity to previously seen _ rather than similarity to a _

Answer 23

exemplars;
prototype

Question 24

How are prototype theory and exemplar theory different from each other?

a. Only prototype theory can explain typicality effects.
b. Only exemplar theory considers the similarity between items.
c. They differ in the number of items that are stored in memory.
d. They differ in how they define category features.

Answer 24

c. They differ in the number of items that are stored in memory.

Correct! Since prototype theory depends on typical features and is probabilistic, you don’t need to store each item. Exemplar theory argues that we are comparing each new item to ones we’ve seen before; therefore, we need to have those items stored for comparison.

Question 25

Murphy and Allopena (1994) discovered that participants have difficulty learning about things that … such as a purple building in the desert inhabited by farmers traveling in submarines

Answer 25

don’t “make sense”

we rely on categories to teach us about the world, and we use our knowledge about the world to help explain category membership

Question 26

Bastian and Haslam (2006) asked participants to complete questionnaires that measured their essentialist beliefs. The questionnaires measured how much participants believed that people belong to discrete groups (“everyone is either a certain type of person”) whether or not qualities are changeable (“everyone can change taheir ways”) and whether group membership has a biological cause (“I am based on my inheritance”). The results revealed that…

Answer 26

participants with higher essentialist beliefs were more likely to endorse a variety of stereotypes about different groups of people

Question 27

Bastian and Haslam (2006) asked participants to complete questionnaires that measured their essentialist beliefs. The questionnaires measured how much participants believed that people belong to discrete groups (“everyone is either a certain type of person”) whether or not qualities are changeable (“everyone can change taheir ways”) and whether group membership has a biological cause (“I am based on my inheritance”). The results revealed that…participants with higher essentialist beliefs were more likely to endorse a variety of stereotypes about different groups of people. This suggests that the categories we form about people are…

Answer 27

shortcuts to reduce cognitive load, not based on essential characteristics of group members

Question 28

According to knowledge-based theories of categorization, how do we know an apple is a fruit?

a. We have seen other similar fruits.
b. We have an implicit understanding of what makes something a fruit.
c. We test unconscious theories of category membership.
d. We have an innate ability to categorize natural categories, such as fruits.

Answer 28

b. We have an implicit understanding of what makes something a fruit.

Yes! This is related to psychological essentialism.

Question 29

Participants give consistent responses when asked to give typicality ratings to well-defined categories. Why is this a problem for the prototype and exemplar theories?

a. because it casts doubt on theories that are based on results of typicality ratings
b. because participants will do whatever they’re told to do in an experiment
c. because well-defined categories don’t exist in the natural world
d. because prototype and exemplar theories are both similarity-based theories

Answer 29

a. because it casts doubt on theories that are based on results of typicality ratings

Correct. If this is something regarding how participants are influenced to respond based on the methodology, it would be less indicative of how we are forming categories.

Question 30

A benefit of a knowledge-based view of categorization is that it explains why items are grouped into categories. This benefit fits well with which idea about concepts and categories?

a. Medin’s definition of concepts
b. the classical approach to categorization
c. Rosch’s prototype theory of categorization
d. exemplar theory

Answer 30

a. Medin’s definition of concepts

Correct! Medin argues that we have implicit understanding of what defines category membership.

Question 31

_ordinate categories provide information about exemplars but are not particularly distinctive from each other. _ordinate category members are distinctive but don’t provide as much information. Basic level categories are both distinctive and provide useful information

Answer 31

subordinate;
superordinate

Question 32

Which of the following is true about category levels?

a. The subordinate level is informative and distinctive.
b. The superordinate level is informative but not distinctive.
c. The subordinate level is distinctive but not informative.
d. The superordinate level is distinctive but not informative.

Answer 32

d. The superordinate level is distinctive but not informative.

Correct! The superordinate level is above the basic level. This level is less informative than the basic level but more distinctive. A superordinate example would be classifying something as an “animal” and not a “fruit.” It provides a broad distinction but not much information.