PSYCH207 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Eleanor Rosch, Family Resemblance, Knowledge Base
Document Summary
The key thing with concepts and categories is that they will be different for each. Categorization: the process by which we place things into groups called categories. Category: a class or group of similar things (objects or entities: examples: fruits, cars, fish, mammals. What role do categories and concepts form in our mental life: without concepts, mental life would be chaotic if each entity was unique, we would be overwhelmed and life would be too complex. Functions of categorization: understanding individual cases you have not seen before and make inferences about them, reduces complexity of environment, requires less learning/memorization, helps to guide you to appropriate action. Concepts help us to establish order in our knowledge base. Concepts allow us to categorize giving us mental buckets in which to sort the things we encounter. Categorization allows us to make predictions and act accordingly.
