Q. What is a “category” in cogsci?
A. A set of things treated equivalently for some purpose
Q. What is a “concept” in cogsci (according to COGS 101B)?
A. A mental representation of a category (including the beliefs used to establish membership)
Q. In the classic view of concepts, what properties define a category?
A. Some set of necessary and sufficient conditions
Q. What’s the problem with the classic view of concepts for defining the category of a “vegetable”?
A. Some vegetables seem consistently more “vegetable-y” than others, e.g. carrots vs. pumpkins.
Q. In the prototype view of concepts, how are concepts represented?
A. You have some ideal “prototype” instance in your mind against which you grade new candidates
Q. In the exemplar view of concepts, how are concepts represented?
A. You compare new objects to specific prior examples of a category.
Q. What’s an example of a categorization task which doesn’t seem to conform to the prototype or exemplar view of concepts?
A. Is a 3-inch object more likely to be a coin or a pizza?
Q. In the “theory” theory of concepts, what is the role of categories?
A. They provide explanations for how things work in the world.
Q. How did Springer and Keil (1989) demonstrate the “theory” theory of concepts?
A. Told children about an animal that acts, looks, and sounds like a horse, but then described that it has cow innards and cow parents and cow babies. Children (>= age 7) think of them as cows, suggesting that category membership is determined by theories of biology.