Cognitive Exam 3

Prototype Theory

A cognitive theory suggesting that people categorize objects and concepts based on their prototypes. This theory emphasizes that categorization is not always rigid but can be fluid based on context.

Prototype

an idealized representation of a category that embodies the most typical features of that category

Family Resemblance

a concept that suggests that members of a category share overlapping features, rather than having a strict set of defining characteristics.

bird examples

Exemplars and Exemplar-Based Learning

a theory suggesting that people categorize objects by comparing them to specific examples rather than abstract prototypes. This approach emphasizes learning through direct experience with individual instances.

kermit the frog vs regular frog

Typicality Effects on Concepts

refers to how some members of a category are more representative than others, influencing judgments and decision-making.

Graded Category Membership

objects closer to a prototype are “better” members of the category than objects further than the prototype… category membership isn’t a “yes” or “no”

birds (sparrow vs kiwi)

Sentence Verification/Production Task

a chronometric task that measures how long it takes a person to make judgements about items based on their properties

true or false… robins are birds? penguins?

Basic Level of Organization (and subordinate/superordinate)

refers to a level of categorization that is neither too general nor too specific, often used in cognitive psychology to describe how people categorize objects. For example, 'dog' is a basic level category, while 'animal' is superordinate and 'poodle' is subordinate.

Superordinate Level Organization

the most general category level in a hierarchy, encompassing broader classes of objects, such as 'animal' for all creatures.

Subordinate Level Organization

the most specific category level in a hierarchy, representing narrower classes of objects, such as 'poodle' for a specific type of dog.

Perceptual vs Functional Properties

the recognition of living things may depend on perceptual properties (especially visual properties) that allow us to identify horses or trees or other animate objects. In contrast, the recognition of nonliving things may depend on their functional properties

Evidence for Categorization Differences from Anomia

lesions in different areas of the temporal lobe result in difficulty naming animals, people, or tools

Knowledge Networks/Propositional Networks

mental representations that organize knowledge in a network structure, linking concepts through relationships and associations.

cats have hearts… cats have claws… Collins & Quillian (1969)

Collins & Quillian (1969), and explain what
these experiments can and cannot tell us about the organization of
knowledge in memory.

The Collins & Quillian model proposed a hierarchical structure of semantic memory, where concepts are organized in a network. The time to retrieve information increases with the distance between concepts in the hierarchy, indicating that knowledge is organized in a networked format, although it does not account for the complexity of real-world knowledge and associations.

cats have hearts requires two links; cats have claws requires one link

a canary is a canary takes less time; a canary has skin takes longer

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)

“A system of handling information in which many steps happen at once (i.e., in parallel) and in which various aspects of the problem or task are represented only in a distributed way.”

The Mind’s Eye (Visual Imagery)

a variety of day-to-day problems seem to require mental imagery (i.e. where did I park last? where are my keys?)

similar to memory; malleable

Chronometric Studies of Imagery

observe the timing of mental processes; EEG

• Kosslyn (1976)

• Kosslyn (1983)

• Collin & Quillian (1969)

Image-Scanning Procedure (Kosslyn, 1983)

Participants memorized a map and were told to imagine it. When tracking the distance between mental objects on the map, it was almost a 1:1 ratio.

Distance in mental imagery tends to stay stable and keep a 1:1 ratio

Visual Imagery and the Brain

occipital areas used for early visual processing are also used in visualization imagery

Spatial vs Visual Images

Individual Difference in Imagery

mental imagery is a spectrum; not everyone is going to see the same apple/experience the same vividness in mental image

Aphantasia

lacking capacity for visualization; people that experience this don’t see mental images

Eidetic Memory

perfect photographic memory; extremely rare and mostly associated with sevantism

Image Information in Long-Term Memory

mental imagery generally improves memory :D

imagery can also help memorize nonvisual materials

Organization of Language

hierarchally organized

Hierarchy of Linguistic Units

phoneme → morpheme → word → phrase → sentence

Phoneme

the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes between meanings

“beg” vs “peg”

Morpheme

the smallest language unit that carries meaning

Word

a complete, discrete unit of meaning in a language

Morphemes and Words

for each word that a speaker knows, they know the word’s:

• sound

• orthography

• syntax

• semantics

Sentence

a coherent sequence of words

Syntax

rules that govern the structure of a phrase or sentence; don’t depend on meaning

Speech Production in the Human Vocal Tract

vocal cords, tongue, oral cavity, nasal cavity, soft and hard palate

Categorization of Speech Sounds Based on Manner of Production, Voicing, and Coarticulation

Coarticulation

the blending of adjacent phonemes: like ñ

Ambiguity in Speech Segmentation

speech segmentation is more difficult when listening to non-native languages

Phonemic Restoration Effect

we “hear” phonemes that are not actually present in the stimulus if they are highly likely in the context; Gestalt effect

“legi*latures”

Importance of Context in Speech Production

without context, it’s difficult to identify words and keep up in a conversation (Polack & Picket, 1964)

Polack & Picket (1964)

spliced out words from conversations; words were easy to identify with context and difficult without

Categorical Perception

Word Orthography

how a word is spelled

Generativity in Human Language

humans come up with new words all the time; this allows for creativity and is a uniquely human concept

Syntactic Expectancy and Violation

when a syntactic violation occurs, such as a word being placed in an unexpected position according to grammatical rules, it disrupts this expectancy, leading to increased processing time and sometimes confusion.

Sentence Parsing

the process of determining each word’s syntactic role in a sentence

Semantic Violation and the N400 ERP Effect

when a semantic violation appears in a sentence, the N400 brain wave appears and spikes in activity; when a semantic violation appears, you can see your brain realize that it’s a violation

Dutch trains are white/sour….

Prosody and Why It’s Important in Speech

the patterns, pauses, and pitch changes that characterize speech production; reveals the speaker’s mood and highlight the sentence’s intended meaning

Pragmatics

one’s knowledge of how language is ordinarily used; conversational “rules” and assumptions about the collaborative nature of conversation

Biological Roots of Language & Language Acquisition Device (Chomsky)

Chomsky believes that there’s a specific “language acquisition device” in the brain; has yet to be found… it seems that language acquisition comes from a combination of experiences and culture

Broca’s vs Wernicke’s Aphasia on Speech Production and Comprehension

Broca’s Aphasia

nonfluent aphasia; impairs language production but comprehension is intact

Wernicke’s Aphasia

fluent aphasia; impaired comprehension, and produced speech is largely nonsensical

Specific Language Impairment

people with this have normal intelligence, normal muscle movement for speech production, but they have difficulty using and learning language

there may be evidence of a specialized mechanism for lanaguage learning

Animal Language

many species have specialized communication systems; extremely limited compared to human language

beware of anthropocentrism!! we may not understand everything about animal language yet

Language and Thought

controversial topic; some evidence shows that people who speak different languages think differently/have different concepts of various things

Linguistic Relativity (Sapir Whorf Hypothesis)

the hypothesis that people who speak different languages think differently as a result

Bilingualism and Language Acquisition

the ability to shift from one cultural frame to another takes top-down processing; kids raised in bilingualism learn both languages as fast as monolingual kids; tendency for smaller vocab in both languages in childhood, but this is temporary