Concepts and Categorization

• Concept


  A mental representation of some object, event, or pattern that has stored in it much of the knowledge typically thought relevant to that thing
• Concepts will be different for every person based on their own individual experiences
• Categorization


  Process by which we place things into groups called categories
• Category


  A class or group of similar things
• Functions of Categorization


  • Allows you to understand individual cases you have not seen before and make inferences about them
  • Reduces complexity of environment (don't have to store same info multiple times for dif things)
  • Requires less learning and memorization
  • Helps guide you to appropriate action
• Classical View


  • Membership is thought to be determined by a set of defining features
  • Defining properties: properties that are deemed necessary and sufficient
  • Membership is all or nothing, no better or worse example in a category
• The Classical View has the issue of graded membership, where people consider some things to be better members of a category than others
• Prototype View


  • Includes features that are characteristic and typical, rather than necessary and sufficient
  • Formed by averaging the category members we have encountered in the past
  • Takes into account each of our own individual experiences
  • Individuals own experience would determine the prototypicality of the instances within memory
  • Refers to the family resemblance structure of concepts
• The Prototype View has issues with typicality depending on context and where to draw the line
• Exemplar View


  • Concepts include actual representations of some real instances the we have experienced
  • Object is categorized by comparing new instances to previous exemplars
  • No defining features associated with the category
• The Exemplar View explains why objects are more difficult to categorize than others, and the typicality effect
• Schemata View


  • Concepts are forms of schemata, which are frameworks of knowledge that have roles, slots, variables, etc.
  • Uses both ideas from prototype and exemplar views
• The Schemata View is ill-defined and can't really be tested empirically
• Knowledge-based View


  • People use their knowledge of how the concept is organized to justify the classification of items
  • Category only becomes coherent when you know the purpose of the category
• Concept Attainment Strategies


  • Simultaneous scanning: testing multiple hypotheses at the same time
  • Successive Scanning: tests one hypothesis at a time
  • Conservative Focusing: focus more on the card attributes, participents chooses cards that vary in only one respect from focus card
• Functional Brain Imaging in Concept Learning

  • Early learning: activations are isolated to Right Prefrontal and Parietal Regions, no left hemisphere activation
  • Later learning/as learning progresses: Left side begins to be recruited: Parietal lobe and Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex
• Implicit Concept Learning


  • When task is implicit: usually used when task is more complex and rules are more varied
  • Explicit: when task and rules are more simple