PSYC 2650 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Prototype Theory, Mental Representation

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2650
• Professor: Roderick Barron

Document Summary

Categorizaion: deciding whether or not something is a part of a category. Item in quesion triggers conceptual knowledge in memory: oten a prototype or an exemplar. Item and prototype/exemplar are then compared in order to make decision. Not a yes/no decision it"s a mater of more/less (similarity) Many categories do not have an explicit deiniion specifying what is in or out of the category. Graded membership: idea that objects closer to the prototype are beter members and therefore are more irmly in the category than other members. People can rate the typicality of exemplars of a category leading to typicality efects quicker responding to typical items. A natural way of categorizaion that is not too general and not too speciic. People tend to use basic level terms rather than the more general or more speciic terms. Example: chair = basic category, furniture = superordinate category (general, armchair = subordinate categories (speciic)