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. ☉