LPI Topic 7 Flashcards
Concept Learning
The process of learning to classify objects, events, or ideas based on shared features.
Categorisation
Grouping similar objects or ideas based on shared characteristics to simplify thinking.
Category
A set of objects that share common properties, e.g., “birds” or “vehicles”.
Concept
A mental representation of a category, used for reasoning and communication.
Defining Features Approach
Concepts are defined by a set of necessary and sufficient features.
Hierarchical Network Model (Quillian, 1969)
Concepts are stored in a hierarchy from general (superordinate) to specific (subordinate).
Superordinate Level
The most general category (e.g., “animal”).
Basic Level
Intermediate level, often the most used in daily life (e.g., “dog”).
Subordinate Level
The most specific category (e.g., “Labrador”).
Economy of Storage
A cognitive benefit of the hierarchical model, reducing redundancy in knowledge storage.
Typicality Effect (Smith et al., 1974)
Some category members are recognised faster than others (e.g., “robin” faster than “penguin” for “bird”).
intransitivity of Categorisation (Hampton, 1982)
People may categorise inconsistently (e.g., “car seat is a chair” but not “car seat is furniture”).
Issues with Atypical Examples
Some members do not fit neatly into categories (e.g., “penguin” as a bird).
Challenges from Semantic Dementia
General knowledge is retained longer than specific details, contradicting the hierarchy model.
Prototype Approach (Rosch, 1973)
Concepts are represented by an ideal or most typical example.
Prototype Example
A robin is a more typical “bird” than a penguin.
Typicality Gradient
More typical examples are categorised faster.
Flexibility of Prototypes
Prototypes can change with experience.
Abstract Concepts
No clear prototype for ideas like “crime” or “justice”.
Prototype Combination Problem
How do we combine prototypes for complex ideas? (e.g., “killer firework”).
Exemplar Approach (Medin & Schaffer, 1978)
Concepts are represented by stored examples rather than a single prototype.
How Categorisation Works
A new object is compared to known exemplars.
Preserves Variability
Unlike the prototype approach, it retains category differences.
Strength Over Prototype Approach
Accounts for real-world variability, not just an “average” example.
