Lecture for Chapter 8

Question 1

What are the functions of a concept?

Answer 1

1) classification
2) understanding
3) prediction
4) reasoning
5) communication

Question 2

A _____ is a mental representation used to classify and a allow us to treat things as equivalent or non equivalent.

Answer 2

concept

Question 3

A _____ is a set of entities of examples described by the concept

Answer 3

category

Question 4

T or F: Categories are subject to illusion of the expert

Answer 4

True

Question 5

An attribute that is required in order for something to qualify as an instance of a concept is called a ________

Answer 5

criterial attribute

Question 6

What does the Bruner Cards experiment study?

Answer 6

How we form categories

Question 7

Describe the two ways of doing the Bruner card experiment:

Answer 7

1) the cards are shuffled and the participant is given a card and guesses if it’s a positive or negative instance of the category. Participants receive feedback on their guesses.
2) A participant is told one card is a member of a category. All the other cards are placed in front of them and they ask about toe other cards until they get the pattern

Question 8

What is the classical view of categories:

Answer 8

Concepts have defining features or attributes ex. dogs bark. The boundaries between categories are fuzzy not straight and there must be a way for exceptions.

Question 9

Are categories defined by definitions:

Answer 9

Most of our knowledge isn’t based on definitions. It is hard to categorize abstract concepts such as empathy based on a single feature which mean we need multiple. Hard to come up with a good definition.

Question 10

T or F: Boundaries between categories are fuzzy and items can switch between categories

Answer 10

True

Question 11

Who developed the family resemblance view of categories?

Answer 11

Wittgenstein

Question 12

Describe the family resemblance view of categories:

Answer 12

Category members have some features in common but not every member has to have those features.

Question 13

The family resemblance view leads to _______ definitions such as “ if you have these features, then you have X likelihood of belonging to category Y”

Answer 13

Probablistic Definition

Question 14

T or F: There are sufficient and necessary conditions in belonging to a category according to the family resemblance view

Answer 14

False- There are no necessary or sufficient conditions but this doesn’t mean that categories have not structure

Question 15

Family resemblance translates into a psychological theory through ______ and ______ theories.

Answer 15

prototype

exemplar

Question 16

Describe how categorization occurs based on Prototype theory:

Answer 16

• based on what is typical of the category
• “centre” of a category that varies with individual, we compare items to the centre to decide if it’s a member
• the “ideal” or average of a category

Question 17

Describe how categorization occurs based on Exemplar theory:

Answer 17

• based on individual examples, frequency and recency are important
• Classification is not based on typicality but on how much this specific example resembles all the other examples in the category

Question 18

________ theory explains graded membership as being due to some category members fitting better than others.

Answer 18

Prototype theory

Question 19

According to exemplar theory graded membership occurs because______________

Answer 19

the memory search is easier when the idea to be characterized has lots of examples

Question 20

What TV show is a good example of prototypes?

Answer 20

Family Feud

Question 21

In prototype theory ______ is important for deciding what is at the centre

Answer 21

experience

Question 22

How is prototype theory tested?

Answer 22

1) Ratings
2) Sentence Verification
3) Production
4) Picture verification

Question 23

Descibe how Ratings test prototype theory:

Answer 23

When people are asked to rate how typical different items are to a category they have no difficulty. Even numbers can be rated as being a better odd or even number.

Question 24

Descibe how Sentence verification tests prototype theory:

Answer 24

People are generally faster at saying whether something is true or false if a sentence is more central to their category.

Question 25

Descibe how production tests prototype theory:

Answer 25

When people are asked to generate as many sentences as they can they generate the prototypical examples first. For example " the bird is in the tree". When the category is replaced with a distant member ex. penguin pple reject the sentence as plausible.

Question 26

Descibe how picture verification test prototype theory:

Answer 26

People are faster at saying something is part of a category for more typical category member ex apple vs pomegranet

Question 27

How is Prototypical = Privileged

Answer 27

Category members closest to the prototype are detected and produced first

Question 28

Describe the hierarchy of categories

Answer 28

Superordinate level: Vehicle, animal, bird Basic level category: Car, dog, robin Subordinate level: Toyota echo, Dachshund, Robin Redbreast

Question 29

Which category level is psychologically privileged?

Answer 29

Basic level categories - most abstract level basic characteristics are shared

Question 30

How are basic level categories psychologically privileged?

Answer 30

These categories are usually captured by one word and seem to be the default working level. Children use these first. Usually used to describe the world

Question 31

T or F : it is possible for Toyota Echo to be someones basic level category

Answer 31

True - experts of a topic may have a subordinat category as their basic category in that topic.

Question 32

Both exemplar and prototype theories allow _______ b/w test item and the category.

Answer 32

compairisons

Question 33

Which experiment showed that exemplars are important for categorization:

Answer 33

The medical diagnosis experiment in which doctors studied 30 slides and then were tested in diagnosing 60 slides of old and new exemplars. Of the new exemplars some were similar to the old and some were dissimilar.

Question 34

What were the results of the medical diagnosis experiment?

Answer 34

Doctors were better at categorizing the old examples and better at the new examples that were similar to the old.The same results for an immediate test and for a 2 week delay

Question 35

The fact that in the medical diagnosis experiment the difference in accuracy b/w similar and dissimilar exemples was ______, indicates that ________ are important for categorization

Answer 35

10-20% | exemplars

Question 36

______ can create new categories and diverse categories endlessly without needing a _______ for each

Answer 36

exemplars | prototype

Question 37

5 ways exemplars give more than the typicality of prototypes:

Answer 37

1) Can represent variability 2) Retain info about particulr cases not based on average 3) Preserve info about correlated features 4) Easier to change category description with new info 5) Novice learners are more likely to rely on them

Question 38

T or F: Categorization is always physical similarity based

Answer 38

False - a dog who has no hair and is mute is still a dog while a counterfeit $20 bill still isn't $20

Question 39

The fact that people know: -a dog who has no hair and is mute is still a dog - a counterfeit $20 bill that looks just like a real one still isn't $20 is evidence that people use ________ and ________

Answer 39

theories and heuristics (strategies)

Question 40

When do we use heuristics?

Answer 40

when we don't have time to think things through