PSYC 305L Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Family Resemblance, Prototype Theory
Document Summary
Chapter themes, basic concepts like chair and dog are building blocks of all knowledge a. i. Whenever we make definitions for something simple we add attributes such as. A dog has four legs, is a mammal, furry and so forth b. i. 1. Then we apply our definitions to other things to see if it fits these categories b. i. 1. a. These same criteria, however, can also be applied to a cat, so then you would have to tweak your definition and understanding of what a dog is: family resemblance c. i. The notion that members of a category (e. g. , all dogs, all games) resemble one another. c. i. 2. In general, family resemblance relies on some number of features being shared by any group of category members, even though these features may not be shared by all members of the category. c. i. 3. Therefore, the basis for family resemblance may shift from one subset of the category to another: prototypes and typicality effects a. i.
