Prototypes
(not checklists)
- fuzzy sets that capture the context-dependent features of group membership
- -> often in the form of representations of exemplary members (actual group members who best embody the group) or ideal types (an abstraction of group features)
stereotyping
the strict adherence to commonly held beliefs about social groups when judging individual members of those groups
Essentialist beliefs
People with these beliefs hold that racial groups possess an underlying essence (often biological or genetic) that represents deep- seated and unalterable properties indicative of traits and abilities
personal frame of reference
based on personal experience with nature
f.e. talking about a personal experience with an animal
abstract frame
based on what they know about nature
f.e. characteristics of a bird
exemplar view
categorising based on previously stores instances, exemplars
schemata
between prototype and exemplar approach
classical based approach
- Definitional approach – decide whether something belongs to a category by determining whether an object fits the definition of the category
- Categories are clearly defined, mutually exclusive & collectively exhaustive
- Doesn’t work as not all members of a category have the same features
- not typicality
- Ancient Greece
- assumes that concepts mentally represent lists of features
- Items are individually necessary and collectively sufficient
Prototype-Based Approach
Membership in a – category is determined by comparing the object to a prototype that represents the category
- based on an average of members of a category that are commonly experienced
Family resemblance – Prototype-Based Approach
idea that thing in a category resemble one another in a number of ways (allows variation)
Rosch’s experiment – Prototype-Based Approach
with the Dani people of Papua New Guinea, she concluded that when categorizing an everyday object or experience, people rely less on abstract definitions of categories than on a comparison of the given object or experience with what they deem to be the object or experience best representing a category (“prototype”)
Priming
prototypical members more affected by priming as people create images of prototypes in response to priming (exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention)
Examplar-Based Approach
- Like prototype approach involves determining whether an object is similar to another object
Examplar
- (many examples, each of which are called an exemplar)
- actual member of the category that an individual has encountered in the past
- Store exemplars as separate, individuated memory traces, refer new items to these stored exemplars & include them in the category if they are similar enough “slide carousel of instances”
Examplar –> Advantages
- Can more easily take into account atypical cases like birds that can’t fly (don’t become lost in the average)
- Can deal more easily with variable categories like “games”
Theory-Based Categorisation
- One decides whether something belongs to a category by determining whether the features of the test item are best explained by the “theory” that underlies the category
Explanation-Based Categorisation
- Explanatory information is critical in making categorisation decisions
Hierarchical organisation
large, more general categories are divided into smaller more specific categories
superordinate level
global/broad (e.g. furniture)
basic level
(e.g. table)
basic-level effect
the level people tend to focus on (careful: only when not specialises in a specific category)
subordinate level
specific (e.g. kitchen table)
Racial Essentialism
a belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category
Racial Essentialism
a belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category
