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Chapter 9: Concepts and Generic Knowledge; By: Jenny Tran 10-22 (Family…
Chapter 9: Concepts and Generic Knowledge; By: Jenny Tran 10-22
concepts
building blocks out of which all your knowledge is created
understanding a concept is like knowing a dictionary definition or know what a house is
Family Resemblance
members of a category
common characteristics
not every characteristic is required
matter of degree
Prototype theory
specify center of category rather than boundaries
"ideal" dog, house, bird
"ideal" is the average of various category members
use this ideal as a benchmark for your conceptual knowledge
graded membership
matter of more or less
objects closer to the prototype are better members of the category than objects farther away from the prototype
some dogs are "doggier" than others
We use both prototype and exemplar!
tasks
Sentence verification
presented with succession of sentences
indicate whether each sentence is T/F
slower response: penguin is a bird
faster response: robin is a bird
participants chose their response by comparing the item to their prototype
close similarity -> fast response
Production
ask people to name as many birds/dogs as they can
completed this task by locating their prototype in their memory and ask themselves what resembles this prototype
start from center and work outward
Rating
participants given list of bird/dogs and asked to rate how "birdy" or "doggy" it is
more "birdy" closer to prototype
less is further away from prototype
Basic level categorization
certain category members more privileged
shown picture of chair
more likely to just say chair rather than upholstered arm chair
basic: represented in our language as a single word
more specific: represented as a phrase
Exemplar theory
make comparisons to examples
whatever example of category comes to mind, you match the object to a memory
ex: is this a chair?
prototype: imagine prototype and compare
exemplar: similar to object in uncle Jerry's room, you know Jerry's object is a char so the new object is a chair
We use both exemplar and prototype!
Typicality
more typical = more privilege
is this a fruit?
apple, orange
had many opportunities to establish apple memories -> easily find memories that match the picture
fig, starfruit
memory search more difficult, not many memories to match these pictures
Typicality and categorization
Study
which of these numbers are even? 2 vs 11; 4 vs 7534
typicality without category: 4 is more typically even than 7534 even though both are even
judging typicality is separate from category
Category without typicality
lemon with red and white stripes. is it still a lemon?
most believe it is even though object is far away from prototype
something can still be a lemon with no resemblance to other lemons
Networks
Knowledge
basic theory
nodes connected by association links
speed of response depends on level association
Study
A canary is a canary
a canary can sing (additional step)
a canary can fly (longer response)
make connection of Canary -> Bird -> Fly
Propositional
tell the difference between: [sam is a dog] vs [sam has a dog]
nodes connected by associative links
some links stronger than others, strength depends on frequency and recency
Connectionist
rely on distorted representations
not represented by nodes
parallel distributed processing: activation happening at multiple places
Ex: what computer do you use?
many nodes representing compute manage collectively to activate the many nodes representing MacBook