Cognitive Psychology Ch 9

Front 1

concept

Back 1

a mental representation that is used fro a variety of cognitive functions including memory, reasoning, and using and understanding language

Front 2

categorization

Back 2

process by which things are placed in to groups called categories. Helps us understand bxs that might otherwise be baffling, helps us focus energy on what is special about the object

Hint 2

example: SUV is categorized into the car category

example: why someones face is painted, its game day

Front 3

definitional approach to categorization

Back 3

we can decide whether something is a member of a category by determining whether a particular object meets the definition of the category. This works well only for some things such as geometric shapes. Problem is sometimes, objects do not fit definition but still are.

Front 4

family resemblance

Back 4

refers to the idea that things in a particular category resemble one another in a number of ways which allows for variation within a category without a strict definition

Front 5

prototype approach to categorization

Back 5

membership in a category is determined by comparing the object to a prototype that represents the category

Front 6

prototype

Back 6

"typical" member of the category, based on an average of members of a category that are commonly experienced

Front 7

high prototypicality

Back 7

a category member closely resembles the category prototype

Front 8

low prototypicality

Back 8

category member does not closely resemble a typical member of the category

Front 9

experiment that shows prototypicality

Back 9

presented participants with a category title such as bird and a list of 50 members of the category. The task was to rate on 7 point scale, 1 meaning very good example, 7 meaning very bad example. Results showed that ppl thought sparrow better example than penguin or bat.

Front 10

experiment that shows how well do good and poor examples of a category compare to other items within the category

Back 10

participants had to list characteristics that were common to each object such as dogs have four legs, are furry, bark

Hint 10

results show that many characteristics of chair and sofa overlap but not with mirror and telephone, which are also in the furniture category. Thus when an items characteristics have a large amount of overlap with many other objects in the category this means that the family resemblance of these items is high, little overlap family resemblance low

Front 11

sentence verification technique

Back 11

participants are presented with statements and asked to answer "yes" if they think the statement is true and "no" if falseexample: an apple is a fruit
a pomegranate is a fruit

Hint 11

example: an apple is a fruit
a pomegranate is a fruit participants respond faster for objects that are high in prototypicality

Front 12

typicality effect

Back 12

the ability to judge highly prototypical objects more rapidly

Hint 12

most prototypical items listed first when listing items in a category

Front 13

experiment that shows prototypical objects are affected more by priming

Back 13

participants first heard prime which was name of color, two seconds later they saw a pair of colors side by side and they indicated by pressing a key whether the two colors were same or different. The colors were paired in three diff ways (1) colors were same and good example of category (2) colors same and bad example of category (3) colors were different and not example of category

Hint 13

if word was green they they judged the two patches of regular green faster than the two patches of light green. This is because when they hear green they think of good green

Front 14

effects of prototypicality chart pg 246

Back 14

study this!

Front 15

exemplar approach to categorization

Back 15

involves determining whether an object is similar to a standard object but does not take the average prototype approach

Hint 15

exemplar approach

Front 16

exemplars

Back 16

actual members of the category that a person has encountered int he past

Front 17

advantage of exemplar approach

Back 17

by using real examples it can more easily take into account atypical cases such as flightless birds so they can be represented as exemplars and not lost in the overall average that creates a prototype. It can also deal with more variable categories like games

Hint 17

exemplar may work better for small categories and prototype better for large categories. we use both approaches

Front 18

hierarchical organization

Back 18

organization in which larger, more general categories are divided into smaller, more specific categories creating a number of levels of categories

Hint 18

is there a basic level that is more psychologically important or privileged that other levels

Front 19

Rosch's approach: whats special about basic level categories

Back 19

distinguished three levels of categories (1) superordinate/global level (furniture) (2) basic level (table) (3) specific level (kitchen table)

Hint 19

as the levels become more specific there are more shared features that apply to all in that category

Front 20

how knowledge can effect categorization

Back 20

the basic level of categories reflects everyday experience. Experiment

Hint 20

asked bird experts and non-experts to name pictures of objects from many diff categories but there were 4 bird pictures. Experts responded with bird's species, non-experts responded with bird. We can conclude that the level that is special is not the same for everyone and depends on their level of knowledge of a category

Front 21

semantic network approach

Back 21

concepts are arranged in networks in the mind. Explain Collin and Quillin's network (pg 250)

Hint 21

consists of nodes that are connected by links. Each node represents a category or concept and concepts re placed in the network so that related concepts are connected. Properties associated with each concept are indicated at the nodes. The links indicate the nodes are related to each other in the mind. It is a hierarchical model

Front 22

cognitive economy

Back 22

the way of storing shared properties just once at a higher level node. Example:

Hint 22

that a canary or robin can fly is not stored with the canary or robin node, it is stored up in the bird node to save space. However there are exceptions fro birds that cant fly such as ostrich, this info is stored with the ostrich node

Front 23

what does Collin and Quillin's model predict?

Back 23

what time it takes for a person to retrieve info about a concept should be determined by the distance that must be traveled through the network. For example:

Hint 23

when using the sentence verification technique, it should take longer to answer yes to the statement a canary is an animal than to a canary is a bird

Front 24

spreading activation

Back 24

activity that spreads out along any link that is connected to an activated node. For example, moving through the network from robin to bird activates the node at bird and the link we use to get from robin to bird, but this activation also spreads to other nosed in the network activating additional concepts connected to canary and bird such as a canary can sing or fly.

Hint 24

additional concepts that receive this activation become primed and so can be retrieved more easily from memory

Front 25

lexical decision task

Back 25

participants read stimuli, some of which are words and some of which are not words. Their task is to indicate as quickly as possible whether each entry is a word or a non word.

Front 26

experiment using the lexical decision task to test the idea that spreading activation can influence priming

Back 26

presented participants with two strings of letters one above the other, and the task was to press yes when they were both words and no if one or both were not words. The variable was the association between pairs of real words. The reaction time was faster when the words were associated.

Hint 26

Retrieving one word from memory triggers a spread of activation to other nearby locations in a network

Front 27

main criticism of Collins and Quillan model

Back 27

does not explain typicality effect where reaction times for statements about an object are faster for more typical members of a category than for less typical members

Front 28

Collins and Loftus Model (pg 253)

Back 28

concepts that are more closely related are connected by shorter lines. It does not have a hierarchical structure. The spacing between concept varies for different people depending on their experience and knowledge of diff concepts. Generalized to explain nearly any result

Hint 28

difficult to falsify

Front 29

What are the four properties of a good psychological theory?

Back 29

(1) explanatory power
(2) predictive power
(3) falsifiability: an experiment could potentially yield results that would not support the theory
(4) generation of experiments: ways to test, improve, raise new questions

Front 30

connectionism (pg 256)

Back 30

an approach to creating computer models for representing concepts and their properties based on characteristics of the brain. They are also called parallel distributed processing (PDP) models because they propose that concepts are represented by activity that is distributed across a network

Front 31

connectionist network

Back 31

units are inspired by the neurons found in the brain. Connections transfer info between units. Some units can be activated by stimuli from environment (input units), and some by signals received from other units (hidden units) which send signals to output units

Front 32

input, hidden, and output units

Back 32

input activate by stimuli from environment, hidden activate by signals from other units, and they send signals to output units

Front 33

connection weights

Back 33

determines how signals sent from one unit either increase or decrease the activity of the next unit. They correspond to what happens at a synapse that transmits signals from one neuron to another. High connection weights result in a strong tendency to excite the next unit, low weights cause less excitation and negative weights can decrease or inhibit activation of receiving unit

Front 34

basic principle of connectionism

Back 34

a stimulus presented to the input units is represented by the pattern of activity that is distribute across the other units

Front 35

how are concepts represented in a connectionist network?

Back 35

a concept like canary is represented not only by activity of the property units, but also by a pattern of activation of other units within the network. This pattern is determined by connection weights

Hint 35

go to pg 257

Front 36

back propagation

Back 36

process by which error signals are sent back to the hidden and representation units to provide info about how the connection weights should be changed so that the correct property units will be activated.

Hint 36

a connectionist network's learning about concepts begins with incorrect connection weights, which are slowly modified in response to error signals.

Front 37

graceful degradation

Back 37

the disruption of performance occurs only gradually as parts of the system are damaged. It is similar to what happens in actual cases of brain damage in which damage to brain only causes partial loss of funtioning

Front 38

what results support the idea of connectionism?

Back 38

(1) the operation of connectionist networks is not totally disrupted by damage
(2) connectionist networks can explain generalization of learning

Front 39

how are different categories (or concepts) represented in the brain?

Back 39

different categories of objects are represented by activity in specific areas of the brain
HOWEVER
distributed representation is more likely because objects consist of many different properties

Hint 39

(eg) fusiform face area (FFA) that responds strongly to faces and the parahippocampal place area (PPA) that responds to houses, rooms, and places

(eg) the representation of a cat is distributed across the sensory (what it looks like), motor (how it moves), higher level knowledge about cats bx and qualities), and emotional areas (emotional response)

Front 40

what mental disability supports the connection between FFA and faces

Back 40

prospoagnesia, the inability to recognize faces

Front 41

experiment that demonstrates the representation of categories in the brain

Back 41

trained monkeys to classify stimuli which consisted of mixtures of cat and dog (stimulus on right 100% cat and on left 100% dog, middle mixtures). The monkeys were trained to respond to stimuli that were more than 50% cat as being in the cat category and the rest as being in the dog category.
Procedure: a sample stimulus (either a cat or a dog) was presented then after a one second delay a test stimulus was presented. The task was to release a lever if the test stimulus was from the same category as the sample stimulus. As they did this they recorded neurons in the inferotemporal cortex which responds to forms and from the prefrontal cortex

Hint 41

results: when the monkey is just looking at the stimuli the neurons fire more to the dog stimuli, during the delay and test periods this neuron responds in the same way to the dog and cat stimuli. In the prefrontal cortex they responded better to the dog stimuli. These results show that different areas of the cortex respond to different aspects of stimuli

Front 42

category-specific knowledge impairment

Back 42

the patient has trouble recognizing objects in one category

Hint 42

K.C. and E.W. had trouble naming and recognizing properties of animals but not nonliving things such as fruits. They also had difficulty answering questions such as do dogs have legs?

Front 43

familiarization/novelty preference procedure

Back 43

when given a choice between a familiar object and a novel one infants generally look longer at the novel one.

Hint 43

The first step in categorization is familiarization in which infants are exposed to a number of different examples within one category. To determine if they have made a category cat the infant is shown pictures of 5 pairs of cats for 15 seconds per pair during familiarization then they are showed a cat paired with a dog during the preference test. If they look longer at the dog then they have formed a cat category. Experiments have shown that babies at 2 months can form a mammals category that excludes furniture at the global level but not distinguish animals themselves basic level. At three months they form the basic level. Even more specific at 6 or 7 months because they categorize different kinds of cats