PSYC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Jorge Luis Borges, Broccoli, 18 Months
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What if (cid:455)our (cid:373)i(cid:374)d did(cid:374)(cid:859)t auto(cid:373)ati(cid:272)all(cid:455) (cid:272)ategorize e(cid:448)er(cid:455)thi(cid:374)g: (cid:862)fu(cid:374)es the me(cid:373)orious(cid:863) (cid:894)jorge luis borges(cid:895, (cid:271)ook (cid:449)here a perso(cid:374) (cid:272)a(cid:374)(cid:859)t (cid:272)ategorize o(cid:271)je(cid:272)ts, challenging to categorize based on change in rotation, perspective, etc. We need concepts and categories to understand the world: concepts: idea that group things together by similar properties (objects, events, qualities) Habituated babies to many different pictures of cats. If babies are habituated through one category, they should be bored by all types of cats they see. Deeper causal understanding helps learning and memory: experiment: told 4 and 5-year-olds about 2 creatures, wugs and gillies (novel words). Group a only heard physical descriptions about the wugs and gillies. Group b heard causal reasons as well as physical descriptions. When asked to categorize the pictures, group b categorized more accurately: why does this happen, kids are not just learning isolated facts; they are trying to explain and tie ideas together into a mental theory.
