PSYCH207 Lecture Notes - German Shepherd, Natural Kind, Eleanor Rosch
20 Aug 2013
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Flexibility across time and relativity if something is new or old example of car or whatever two concepts. *functions of categorization: understand individual cases you have not seen before and make inferences about them. It reduces the complexity of environment and requires less learning/memorization. You know how to act to something by linking the new thing to something you have already seen: psychological essentialism: people act as if things have underlying natures that make them what they are (ex. Gender) often these molecular makeup are not right available, we use more superficial cues not the essential factors (ex. Classical view: category membership determined by a set of defining (necessary and sufficient) properties. Need all those properties to fit into the category. Concepts are not representations of specific examples but a list of characteristics. Membership in the category is clear cut, either in or out. No defining features for many categories (eg. games- is poker a game of a business?)
