PSY308-Chapter-04

Function

The purpose or role that categories serve in processing information.

Categorization

The process of grouping things into categories based on shared characteristics.

Simplify

To make something easier to understand or explain by breaking it down.

Understand

To grasp the meaning, significance, or nature of something.

Guide

To direct or influence behavior in a helpful way.

Predict

To use known information to forecast or estimate future occurrences.

Classical Theory

A theory that categorizes objects based on necessary and sufficient features, assuming categories exist naturally.

Probabilistic Theory

A theory that suggests category membership is based on characteristics that some members fit better than others.

Prototype Theory

The idea that people maintain a mental representation of the average member of a category.

Exemplar Theory

The theory that categorization depends on the similarity to specific encountered examples rather than an average.

Typicality Effect

The phenomenon where some category members are more readily thought of than others.

Family Resemblance

The concept that items in a category may not share a defining feature but resemble each other in a family-like way.

Spread of Activation

A model predicting how activation spreads from one concept to related concepts in memory.

Hierarchical Models

Models of categorization where specific items are arranged under more general categories, predicting the spread of activation.

Core Feature

A characteristic that is essential to defining a category.

Superordinate Level

The highest level in hierarchical categorization, encompassing broad categories.

Basic Level

The preferred level of categorization that is most informative and salient.

Subordinate Level

The lower level in hierarchical categorization, specifying particular instances of a category.