PSYB57H3 Midterm: term test 2 study guide
Document Summary
Medin concepts and categories serve as building blocks for human thought and behaviour. Lamberts + shanks argued that the issue of how things such as concepts are mentally represented is a central concern of cognitive psychology. Ex concept of dog, 4 legs, barks, and has a tail. Category a class of similar things (objects or entities) that share one of two things: either an essential core, or some similarity in perceptual, biological, or functional properties. Concepts are described as the mental representations of categories. Smith + medin elaborated on the important role concepts play in our mental life: without concepts, mental life would be chaotic. If we perceived each entitity as unique we would be overwhelmed by the sheer diversity of what we experience and unable to remember more than a minute fraction of what we encounter. And if each individual entity needed a distinct name, our language would be staggeringly complex and communication wirtually impossible.
