Chapter 9

Question 1

conceptual knowledge

Answer 1

enables people to recognize objects and events and make inferences about their properties

Question 2

concepts

Answer 2

mental representations of a class or individual, categories of events, objects, or ideas, ex. the concept cat answers the question what is a cat?

Question 3

category

Answer 3

includes all possible examples of a concept, ex. category of cat includes tabbies, Ragdolls, simease, tiger, pointer to knowledge

Question 4

categorization

Answer 4

the process by which things are placed in categories

Question 5

definitional approach to categorization

Answer 5

decide if an object is a part of a category if it meets the definition of the category, problem is not all members of the same category have the same features

Question 6

family resemblance; alternative to definitional approach

Answer 6

things in a category resemble each other in many ways

Question 7

prototype approach to categorization

Answer 7

membership in a category is determined by comparing the object to a prototype representing that category

Question 8

prototype

Answer 8

typical member of a category, average representation

Question 9

high vs. low typicality

Answer 9

high typicality; category member closely resembles prototype
low typicality; category member doesn’t closely resemble prototype

Question 10

what does it mean that prototypical objects have high family resemblance?

Answer 10

when an items characteristics have a large overlap with the characteristics of other items in the category, considered a good example of a category

Question 11

sentence verification technique and effect it demonstrated

Answer 11

participants are asked if a statement is true or false, found that people responded faster for objects with high prototypicality, this is the typicality effect

Question 12

prototypicality and priming

Answer 12

prototypical members if a category are more affected by a priming stimulus than non-prototypical members, they are also named first

Question 13

exemplar approach to categorization

Answer 13

membership in a category is determined by comparing the object to an exemplar of the category

Question 14

exemplar

Answer 14

actual members of a category that a person has encountered in the past

Question 15

how does the exemplar approach explain the typicality effect?

Answer 15

objects that resemble more of the exemplars are classified faster, ex. sparrow is similar to many birds, so it is identified faster than a penguin

Question 16

hierarchical organization model of categorization

Answer 16

larger, more general categories are divided into smaller more specific categories, ex. furniture splits into beds, chairs, tables and even further chairs splits into desk chairs, dining room chairs, folding chairs supported by sentence verification techniques

Question 17

Rosch and levels of categories

Answer 17

1. superordinate/global level: highest, most general category, ex. furniture
2. basic level: ex, chair
3. subordinate/specific level

Question 18

what is physiologically special about the basic level?

Answer 18

going a level above it to the global level causes a a large loss in info (9 vs 3 features) and going a level bellow to the specific level results in little gain in info (9 vs 10.3 features)

Question 19

how does knowledge affect categorization?

Answer 19

the level that is “special” (people tend to focus on it) is not the same for everyone based on culture and knowledge

Question 20

semantic network approach

Answer 20

approach to understanding how concepts are organized in the mind that proposes concepts are arranged in networks with nodules

Question 21

cognitive economy

Answer 21

feature of some semantic network models in which properties of a category that are shared by many members are stored at a higher-level node, ex. “has feathers” is stored at the node for bird not canary, includes exceptions at lower nodes, for example, for birds that can’t fly

Question 22

spreading activation

Answer 22

property of the cognitive economy theory; activity that spreads out along any link attached to a node, ex. activating canary-to-bird pathway activates additional concepts connected to bird such as animal. result is that the additional concepts become primed to be retrieved from memory, supported by priming experiments

Question 23

lexical decision task

Answer 23

person is asked to respond asap if a word is a real word or non-sense word, provided support for spreading activation

Question 24

connectionist approach/ parallel distributing process

Answer 24

computer program that simulates the brain, concepts are represented in networks that are modelled after neural networks with input units, output units, and hidden units, information is distributed along the network vs in isolated units

Question 25

key property of connectionist networks

Answer 25

has units: inspired by neurons specific category is represented by activity that is distributed over many units in the network vs. semantic networks where specific categories are represented at the nodule

Question 26

types of units

Answer 26

input units: activated by stimuli from the environment which send the signal to 2. hidden units, which send the signal to 3. output units

Question 27

connection weight

Answer 27

determines how signals sent from one unit increase or decrease the activity of the next unit, corresponds to what happens at the synapse high connection weight= strong excitement of next unit lower weight causes less activation and negative weight decreases/inhibits activation

Question 28

basic principle of connectionism

Answer 28

stimulus presented to a unit is represented by the pattern of activity that is distributed across the other units

Question 29

back propagation

Answer 29

process by which learning can occur in a connectionist networks, where an error signal is transmitted backwards through the network. this signal provides the info needed to adjust the weights for the correct output signal for a stimulus, like being corrected by a person

Question 30

error signal

Answer 30

difference between the output generated by a stimulus and the output that actually represents the stimulus

Question 31

what results also support the idea of connectionism?

Answer 31

1. operation of connectionist networks is not totally disrupted by brain damage/ disruption of performance occurs gradually as structures are damaged (graceful degradation) 2. connectionist networks can explain generalized learning

Question 32

sensory-functional hypothesis of how concepts are represented in the brain

Answer 32

our ability to distinguish between living things and artifacts depends on 2 memory systems: one that distinguishes sensory attributes (living things) and one that distinguishes function (artifacts), ex. patients with category-specific memory impairment couldn't recognize animals but could recognize objects

Question 33

the multiple factor approach to how things are represented in the brain

Answer 33

distributed representation, searching for factors beyond sensory and function that determine how concepts are spilt into categories, ex. how are things categorized? must be through many shared factors not just one like colour emphasizes the role of many different features and properties

Question 34

crowding

Answer 34

relevant to multiple factor approach; refers to the fact that animals share many different properties(eyes, legs), and artifacts don't, according to this idea people with concept impairments can't recognize animals because they are all very similar

Question 35

the semantic category-specific approach to how things are represented in the brain

Answer 35

approach to describing how semantic info is represented in the brain; proposes specific neural circuits for specific categories, survival factor, focuses on areas of the brain that respond to specific stimuli, but brains response to stimuli is distributed over many cortical areas emphasizes specialized areas in the brain and connecting networks

Question 36

embodied approach to categorization

Answer 36

knowledge of concepts is based on reactivation of sensory and motor processes that occur when we interact with an object.The linked between perception and motor responses (mirror neurons) is central to this approach's proposal that thinking about concepts causes activation of perceptual and motor areas associated with these concepts emphasizes activity caused by the sensory and motor properties of an object. interactions with the world

Question 37

semantic somatotopy

Answer 37

evidence for embodied approach; correspondence with brain activity location for words related to a specific part of the body and brain activity location for doing actions with the same body part.

Question 38

semantic dementia

Answer 38

condition where there is general loss of all knowledge for concepts

Question 39

anterior temporal lobe

Answer 39

damage is connected to semantic deficits in dementia and savant syndrome patients

Question 40

hub and spoke model of semantic information

Answer 40

proposes areas associated with different specific functions are connected to the at ATL, which integrates all the information includes: 1. valence 2. speech 3. auditory 4. visual 5. functionality

Question 41

evidence for hub and spokes model

Answer 41

damage to a specific region causes a specific deficit, damage to the hub causes general deficits, TMS studies

Question 42

What are all the approaches for how concepts arw organized in the brain?

Answer 42

Semantic concept-specific,

Question 43

What are all the approaches for how concepts arw organized in the brain?

Answer 43

Semantic concept-specific,