ZeePedia

Memory:Benefits of Categorization, Levels of Categories

<< Memory:Recognition of lost memories, Representation of knowledge
Memory:Prototype, Rosch and Colleagues, Experiments of Stephen Read >>
img
Cognitive Psychology ­ PSY 504
VU
Lesson 34
Memory
Representation of knowledge
Categories
Definition of a category: "A category refers to a group of objects sharing the same essential
features."
Benefits of Categorization:
Categorization reduces complexity of the environment. Like example of dog in previous lecture.
There are more than 7 million discriminable colors. But we can recognize in 7 colors. And we call
almost 10, 0000 colors in one category. We have many categories of colors. For example there
are many shades of green colors, like trees, parrot, etc all having green colors but they have
different shades. Red colors also have many shades like, blood color rose color etc.
Categorization is means by which objects are identified. For example pattern recognition. Dog is
a category even there are many kinds of dogs. If we have never seen particular object before but
we can recognize it because of its category.
Categorization reduces the need for constant learning. We don't need to learn about the new dog
but we know this is dog because it can bite and bark. No need to learn about every single object.
Because we have learnt it before.
Categorization helps us decide appropriate action. We have categorized the thing that's why they
are easy to learn and remember. For example we know about the things whether they are good
or bad, poisonous or non-poisonous. We know how to behave in front of dog if the dog is guard
dog, or kept dog. So our response is according to the category.
Categorization helps us order and relate object. For example a category of chair, there are many
types of categories like there drawing room chair, kitchen chair, kid's high chair, dinning room
chair, wheel chair. But the category is chair we have many sub categories. It makes difference
and allows us to make a hierarchy of system that helps us ion ordering and relating things. Like
Chair, highchair, furniture
Levels of Categories
i)
Superordinate Category:
"It is a large category at the top of the hierarchy." Such as furniture, tools, vehicles etc. furniture is
a large category it has sofa, bed, table, chair etc. tool is also a large category it has electronic
tool, wood tool etc. vehicles is also large category. These are subordinate categories.
ii)
Basic Level Category:
"It is an intermediate category in the middle of the hierarchy." e.g. Table, chair, bed, sofa etc. We
have direct link with these categories. These are basic level because their subordinate category
is furniture.
iii)
Subordinate Category:
"It is a small category at the bottom of the hierarchy." e.g. lamp, screw-driver, truck etc. screw
driver is a specialized category. There are many types of table such as, coffee table, lamp table,
etc. another example is car like 100 cc car 800 cc car etc.
We can explain these three levels in this way :
Level 1. Furniture
Level 2. Chair
Level 3. Drawing room chair
Concepts
100
img
Cognitive Psychology ­ PSY 504
VU
Definition:
"Concept is a mental representation of a category."
It is the mental representation or is the concept made up of the rules regarding necessary and
sufficient features. Basically the concept means what you are getting in your head, is it the
definition of a chair?
How the category is stored in the mind is about a concept.
A botany student's concept of fruit is slightly different from that of the chef. This is because they
get this category in different way. Both define fruit in different way.
So categories are internal representation of categories.
Necessary & Sufficient Features of concept
It is the mental representation or is the concept made up of the rules regarding necessary and
sufficient features.
What is this mental representation made up of?
For example Furniture
Furniture can be defined as Movable articles in a building. This is not a proper definition. Every
definition has many problems even in this definition.
How do you group chairs, tables and sofas in furniture but children's toys are excluded?
Television?
May be wooden articles
What about metal sofas and tables
Drawing room, beds
Lamps
Lights etc
These all are movable things.
We can impose something in categories. But in concepts we can not. For example science
students can define Tomato and Brinjal in different way but lay man define it different.
Mental Experiment
A mental experiment is to help in understanding the concept.
First close your eyes,
What comes to mind when I say furniture?
Write it down.
Now again close your eyes, what comes to mind when someone say chair?
Is it a definition? Or is it an example. It means when you close your eyes what comes in your
mind the definition or actual image of chair at particular place.
Prototypes
Proto means "essential or basics" when we make new things first of all we make a proto that
explain briefly the new things.
101
img
Cognitive Psychology ­ PSY 504
VU
Typical features are averaged to make a mental representation. This unique representation may
not match a single instance.
Look in the above figures there are many birds.
For example we watch many birds we note all features and then take average of all features. For
example some have long beaks some have short beaks. By averaging this we make an average
beak. It means by averaging all things we make a mental representation. What would be a
prototype of the concept furniture, average table + chair? The prototype of furniture by averaging
of sofa, bed, or chair then a different thing will become.
We store information about categories in a head in the form of prototype is a problematic. The
averages of all birds will not be representative.
If we average the feature off all things we nothing find something proper. Like the average of
eagle and crow will be different than the actual.
Exemplars
Concepts
are
represented
by
exemplars. For example when we close
our eyes and think about a bird then a
typical bird such as sparrow is recalled.
And when we think about furniture we
picture a particular part of our homes
and see specific sofas, chairs and
tables etc".
These all are exemplars. In the above
figure we are seeing a sparrow this is
an actual bird not an average bird. So in
our mind we see actual pictures not a
average picture.
102
Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION:Historical Background
  2. THE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH
  3. COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY:Brains of Dead People, The Neuron
  4. COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY (CONTINUED):The Eye, The visual pathway
  5. COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (CONTINUED):Hubel & Wiesel, Sensory Memory
  6. VISUAL SENSORY MEMORY EXPERIMENTS (CONTINUED):Psychological Time
  7. ATTENTION:Single-mindedness, In Shadowing Paradigm, Attention and meaning
  8. ATTENTION (continued):Implications, Treisman’s Model, Norman’s Model
  9. ATTENTION (continued):Capacity Models, Arousal, Multimode Theory
  10. ATTENTION:Subsidiary Task, Capacity Theory, Reaction Time & Accuracy, Implications
  11. RECAP OF LAST LESSONS:AUTOMATICITY, Automatic Processing
  12. AUTOMATICITY (continued):Experiment, Implications, Task interference
  13. AUTOMATICITY (continued):Predicting flight performance, Thought suppression
  14. PATTERN RECOGNITION:Template Matching Models, Human flexibility
  15. PATTERN RECOGNITION:Implications, Phonemes, Voicing, Place of articulation
  16. PATTERN RECOGNITION (continued):Adaptation paradigm
  17. PATTERN RECOGNITION (continued):Gestalt Theory of Perception
  18. PATTERN RECOGNITION (continued):Queen Elizabeth’s vase, Palmer (1977)
  19. OBJECT PERCEPTION (continued):Segmentation, Recognition of object
  20. ATTENTION & PATTERN RECOGNITION:Word Superiority Effect
  21. PATTERN RECOGNITION (CONTINUED):Neural Networks, Patterns of connections
  22. PATTERN RECOGNITION (CONTINUED):Effects of Sentence Context
  23. MEMORY:Short Term Working Memory, Atkinson & Shiffrin Model
  24. MEMORY:Rate of forgetting, Size of memory set
  25. Memory:Activation in a network, Magic number 7, Chunking
  26. Memory:Chunking, Individual differences in chunking
  27. MEMORY:THE NATURE OF FORGETTING, Release from PI, Central Executive
  28. Memory:Atkinson & Shiffrin Model, Long Term Memory, Different kinds of LTM
  29. Memory:Spread of Activation, Associative Priming, Implications, More Priming
  30. Memory:Interference, The Critical Assumption, Limited capacity
  31. Memory:Interference, Historical Memories, Recall versus Recognition
  32. Memory:Are forgotten memories lost forever?
  33. Memory:Recognition of lost memories, Representation of knowledge
  34. Memory:Benefits of Categorization, Levels of Categories
  35. Memory:Prototype, Rosch and Colleagues, Experiments of Stephen Read
  36. Memory:Schema Theory, A European Solution, Generalization hierarchies
  37. Memory:Superset Schemas, Part hierarchy, Slots Have More Schemas
  38. MEMORY:Representation of knowledge (continued), Memory for stories
  39. Memory:Representation of knowledge, PQ4R Method, Elaboration
  40. Memory:Study Methods, Analyze Story Structure, Use Multiple Modalities
  41. Memory:Mental Imagery, More evidence, Kosslyn yet again, Image Comparison
  42. Mental Imagery:Eidetic Imagery, Eidetic Psychotherapy, Hot and cold imagery
  43. Language and thought:Productivity & Regularity, Linguistic Intuition
  44. Cognitive development:Assimilation, Accommodation, Stage Theory
  45. Cognitive Development:Gender Identity, Learning Mathematics, Sensory Memory