✿ Category -
is a group of objects or
✿ Concept - events that share
is a thought in your head common features or
about something you characteristics.
know or understand.
HOW ARE OBJECTS PLACED INTO CATEGORIES
We use our concepts to sort objects into categories.
This process is crucial for making sense of the world around us.
• Prototype Matching- We compare an object to a mental image, or
prototype, of the category. The closer the match, the more likely it
is to be categorized as a member. For example, your prototype for
"bird" might be a robin with feathers and wings. If you see a
sparrow, it easily fits into the "bird" category because it shares
many features with your prototype.
• Family Resemblance- Things in a category resemble each other
in a number of ways.
• Typicality- Assessing how closely something matches the
average or most common characteristics within a category.
• Naming people- Categorizing people or things by name simply
means organizing them into groups based on the names they have.
• Priming- Presentation of one stimulus affects responses to a
stimulus that follows.
• Exemplar Theory- This approach suggests we learn categories
through specific examples we encounter.
• Hierarchical Organization - This kind of organization, in which
larger, more general categories are divided into smaller, more
specific categories, creating a number of levels of categories.
ROSCH’S APPROACH: WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT BASIC LEVEL CATEGORIES?
• Rosch’s research starts with the observation that there are
different levels of categories, ranging from general (like
“furniture”) to specific (like “kitchen table”), as shown in Figure
9.8, and that when people use categories, they tend to focus on one
of these levels.
She distinguished three levels of categories:
Specific Level: This level
Basic Level: The basic level represents categories that
Global Level: At this is the most psychologically are highly specific and
level, categories are salient and cognitively detailed. They are often
broad and encompassing, efficient level of subsets of basic-level
categorization. It represents categories. For instance,
representing highly
categories that are neither "Labrador retriever,"
abstract concepts. For
too general nor too specific. "Toyota Camry," or "oak
example, "animal" or These categories are easy to tree" would be categories at
"vehicle" would be recognize and are often used the specific level.
categories at the global in everyday language.
level. Examples include "dog,"
"car," or "tree."
The following demonstration illustrates some
characteristics of the different levels.
COLLINS AND QUILLAN'S
HIERARCHICAL MODEL
- The first semantic network
model, meaning that the concepts
were organized from higher order
REPRESENTING RELATIONSHIPS AMONG categories down to lower order
CATEGORIES: SEMANTIC NETWORKS categories and their exemplars.
- In this section, our main concern is
to explain an approach to categories
that focuses on how categories or
concepts are organized in the mind.
• We can store characteristics and properties of concepts at each node.
• According to the principle of cognitive economy, which just means that our
brain is efficient, we store these properties at the highest possible node.
• Piece of supporting evidence for this type of hierarchical organization comes
from how long it takes people to verify certain statements.
• We store things in a hierarchical manner, because the longer it takes us to
verify a connection between two nodes, then the longer those links are, or the
nodes we have to go through to make that link.
THE CONNECTIONIST APPROACH
- This approach has gained favor among many
researchers because it is inspired by how information is
represented in the brain, and it can explain a number of
findings, including how concepts are learned and how
damage to the brain affects people's knowledge about
concepts.
CONNECTIONISM
- This model is called PARALLEL DISTRIBUTED
PROCESSING (PDP), this states that memories exist in a
network and new experiences alter this network and
change one's knowledge base.
• More connections means that information is stored longer.
• Parallel Processing is essentially portioned when portions
of the network activate simultaneously and how the
inferences are drawn.
• The Sensory-Functional (S-F) Hypothesis
- (category-specific memory impairment— an impairment in
which they had lost the ability to identify one type of object
but retained the ability to identify other types of objects.)
- states that our ability to differentiate living things and
artifacts depends on a memory system that distinguishes
sensory attributes and a system that distinguishes functions.
• The Multiple-Factor Approach
- suggests that we don't categorize things based on a single
feature, but rather on a combination of features.
- crowding— which refers to the fact that animals tend to
share many properties.
• The Semantic Category Approach
- proposes that there are specific neural circuits
in the brain for some specific categories.
• The Embodied Approach
- states that our knowledge of concepts is based on
reactivation of sensory and motor processes that occur when
we interact with the object.
- it argues that our understanding of concepts is heavily
influenced by our bodies and our experiences interacting with
the world.
THE HUB AND SPOKE MODEL
• The hub and spoke model of semantic knowledge. According
to this model, areas of the brain that are associated with
specific functions are connected to the ATL, which serves as
a hub that integrates the information from these areas.
• Hub: An area in the brain, likely in the anterior temporal
lobe (ATL), acts as the central hub. This hub integrates
information from various brain regions.
Spokes: Different sensory and motor regions of the brain
process specific aspects of a concept. These regions act like
spokes, feeding information to the hub.
• Concept and Categories: Concepts are mental representations
of knowledge or understanding, while categories are groups of
objects or events sharing common features.
• Placing Objects into Categories: Methods include prototype
matching, family resemblance, typicality, naming, priming, and
exemplar theory.
• Basic Level of Categories: Rosch's research identified three
levels: superordinate, basic, and subordinate.
• Network Model of Categorization: Collins and Quillan's
hierarchical model and the connectionist approach explain how
concepts are organized in the mind.
• Representation in the Brain: Various proposals include the
sensory-functional hypothesis, multiple-factor approach,
semantic category approach, and embodied approach. The hub
and spoke model suggests integration of information in the brain,
with the anterior temporal lobe acting as a central hub.
