PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Deeper Understanding, Exemplar Theory, Prototype Theory
22 Jun 2016
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Categorization: our cognitive ability to place various objects, people, and ideas into categories and concepts helps us to efficiently process the incoming information and make appropriate responses. We respond based on the urgency of a situation: without the ability to categorize experiences, we would be overwhelmed by sensory information and would treat every experience as a unique experience. We would be unable to make connections with the past. Categorization is a seamless process which happens constantly in order to initial decision making. Classification treat objects that appear differently as belonging together. For example, apples may be different in the color dimension but are still treated similarly by the brain. For example, two people shouting automatically tells us that there may be a fight. Predicting by categorizing a current experience and relating it to past experiences, we can make predictions about the current situation"s needs: recognizing a bear and knowing to stay away from it because it might attack.
