Chapter 8 textbook Flashcards
a concept
is the mental representation of an object, event, or idea (ie chair, armchair, coffee table)
categories
clusters of interrelated concepts (ie furniture)
categorization is difficult to define becaue
it has elements of perception, memory, and higher order proceses such as decision making
clasical categorization
this theory claims that object or events are categorized accorifing to a certain set of rules or by a specific et of features
graded membership
the obervation that some concepts appear t make better category members than other
sentance verification technique
- how psychologists have researched classical categorization
- -volunteers wait for a sentance to appear in front of them on a computer screen and respond as quickly as possible to a yes or no answer to statements such a “a sparrow is a bird” or “a penguin is a bird”.the choice and reaction time is measured by the reearcher
-some members of a category are recognized faster than others (ie answer yes to sparrow faster to penguin)
prototype
mental representations of an average category member. (ie think of a robin when you hear bird as opposed to ostrich or penguin)
–allow for classification by resemblance
basis difference between clasical categories and prototypes
CC: set of rules and characteristics
Proto: general comparison based on resemblance
semantic network
an interconnected set of nodes (or concepts) and the links that join them to form a category
-in thee networks, similar irems have more and stronger connections than unrelated items
nodes and links (semantic network)
circles that represent concepts
links connect nodes together to represent the structure of a category as well as the relationships amoung different categories
how is a semantic network arranged:
heirarchical – it consists of a structure moving from general to very specific
basic level category (semantic netowrk)
middle row of the diagram, (ie birds, fish)
- most commonly used in conversation (ie: there is a bird in your yard, as opposed to there is an animal or there is a robin)
- easiest to pronounce (ie bird, fish)
- the level at which prototype exist
- the level at which most thinking occurs
superordinate categories (semantic network)
at top (most generalized, ie animals)
-generaly used when someone is uncertain of someone is uncertain about an object, or when they want to group together a number of different examples from the basic level category
subordinate categories (emantic network)
at the bottom is subordinate level (ie sparrow or trout)
-when someone uses this category, it suggests that there is omething special about this particular type of bird. it may also indicate that the peaker has expert level knowledge of the basic category and that using the more specific level is necessary to get her point across in the intended way
priming
the activation of indicidual concept in long term memory
lexical decision task
a volunteer sits at a computer and stares at a focal point. next, a string of letters flashes on the screen. the volunteer answers yes or no as quickly as posibl as to whether the letter spelt a word…
–a volunteer should respond faster that apple is a word following the word fruit (semantically related) than if it follows the word bus
are lexical decisions have any impact on everyday life
Coane:
-invited volunteers to participate in lexical decision tasks about holidays at different times of year. had words such as nutcracker and reindeer near christmas. researchers did not instigate the priming… decorations and advertisements may erve as constant primes
why is priming relevant
it can be ued in a controlled way to promote specific behaviours (ie through advertising)
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Category Specific Visual Agnosia (CSVA)
some patients with damage to the temporal lobes have trouble identifying objects such as pictures of animals or vegitables despite the fact that they were able to describe the shapes that made up those objects
culture and categorical thinking
- categories vary acros cultures (ie cow in NA vs cow in india)
- how objects related to eachother varies across culture (ie cows with chickens, vs cows with grass)
linguistic relativity
the theory that the language we use determines how we understand the world
aka whorfian hypotheis
small group of caegories important for urvival
our brain cannot have a category fo everything – too much
-small group of categories for survival
animals, fruits/veg, members of our species, tools,
how we categorize objects depends to a great extent on________
what we have learned about those objects from others in our culture
-categorization is based on cultural learning (to ome extent)
problem solving
accomplishing a goal when the solution or the path to the solution is not clear
