Categories and concepts

week 13

category

set of objects that must be treated as equivalent in some way, that are typically made up of things considered similar to each other

concepts

the mental representations we form of categories

borderline items

items that are barely considered a part of a category, and thus it is not clear

typicality

how much an item fits within a category

what is an example of typicality being used in the real world

people tend to say typical items before non-typical items in language

category hierarchies

more concrete categories are nestled into larger, more abstract categories

levels of categories

superordinate, basic, subordinate

which is not an example of a category hierarchy

animals are vertebrates

basic level of categorization

the neutral, preferred category for a given object, at an intermediate level of specificity

differentiation

the category members are similar to one another, but they are different from memories of other categories

psychological essentialism

the belief that members of a category have an unseen property that causes them to be in the category and to have the properties associated with it

Piaget’s stage theory

theory that development occurs through a sequence of discontinuous stages

socioculture theories

emphasize how other people and the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the surrounding culture influence a child's development

information processing theories

examine the mental processes that produce thinking at any one time and the transition processes that lead to growth in that thinking

depth perception

the ability to perceive the distance from oneself to objects in the environment, that depends on seeing patterned light

conservation problems

problems pioneered by Piaget in which physical transformation of an object or a set of objects changes in shape, but does not change in the quantity being asked about

what is the question we should be asking about in regards to nature versus nurture?

how does nature and nurture work together to produce cognitive development?

phonemic awareness

awareness of the component sounds within words

numerical magnitudes

the size of numbers

when does autism typically present itself?

3 months

Autism

considered a neurodevelopment disorder, that is defined by the presence of profound difficulties in social interactions and communication combined with repetitive or restricted interests

social brain

set of interconnected neuroanatomical structures that process social information, enabling the recognition of other individual s and the evaluation of their mental states

what structure does not make up a part of the social brain

superior amygdala

what 2 brain imaging techniques are used to look at brain activity across lifetimes due to their high spatial and temporal resolutions?

ERP and fMRI

sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)

children will try to figure out how to use the skills they were born with, such as sucking, grasping, kicking, and try to repeat things that make them happy, and get their parents reaction

object permanence

the understanding that objects do not disappear when they are out of sight, which can develop as young as 3.5 months old

pre operational stage (2-7 years)

children can make reversible mental processes, deal with symbolic representation, and understand that the object properties remain the same despite changes in shape or arrangement of objects

concrete operational stage

can classify objects, by shape and colour, can reason if objects are right in front of them, but have problems with imagined deductive reasoning and abstract thought, and has issues applying concepts to new ideas

formal operational stage

ability to formulate hypotheses and test them in a logical and scientific fashion, more flexible on worldview

exemplar theory

a specific remembered instance or example, in which one compares new stimuli with examples already stored in memory

prototype theories

idealized or average representation to represent a category and to compare new stimuli to

continuous development

gradually improving/refining the same types of skills that were there to begin with

discontinuous development

new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times

schemata

mental frameworks or bodies of knowledge that organizes and synthesizes information about a person, place, or thing