PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Prototype Theory, Exemplar Theory
23 Sep 2014
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Classification allows us to treat objects that appear differently as belonging together (ex: apples) Understanding, predicting (current experience and comparing it to past experience), communication. Illusion of the expert: the feeling that something must be simple because you"re good at it. Suggests that we categorize objects by comparing them to an internal representation of the category called a prototype. Prototypes are thought to be the average, or best member of a category. Categorize new objects by comparing them to your prototypes. The further an object is from your prototype, the less likely it will be categorized (for example, looks more like a bush then a tree so you refer to it as a bush) More typical category members which are likely closer to the prototype are categorized more quickly and easily than are atypical category members. Good chance that when asked to write down an object from a certain category, answers will be inconsistent with time.
