Lecture 13 Knowledge Representation

Cognitive Processes

What is the role of concepts in mental processing?

Concepts categorize things in the world, allowing us to recognize objects and understand how to interact with them.

How does the classical approach define concepts?

Concepts are defined by a set of features that are necessary and sufficient for membership.

What is an example of a concept defined by necessary and sufficient features?

A triangle is defined as a closed, three-sided shape whose interior angles sum to 180°.

What are two limitations of the classical approach to concepts?

Family resemblance and the typicality effect.

What does family resemblance imply about category members?

Category members may be connected by overlapping similarities without having a single feature common to all members.

What is the typicality effect in concept recognition?

People respond more quickly to typical examples of a category than to atypical members.

What is the prototype approach to concepts?

Concepts are represented based on an abstract representation that includes common and distinctive features of members.

How does the exemplar approach differ from the prototype approach?

The exemplar approach uses separate representations of examples of the category based on personal experiences rather than a single prototype.

What does the concepts based on world knowledge approach consider?

It takes into account non-observable features, such as the goal of an object, using general world knowledge to group objects.

What is perceptual symbols theory?

It assumes that concepts are represented perceptually rather than with amodal symbols, relating to embodied cognition.

How might the concept of 'apple' be represented according to perceptual symbols theory?

The concept of 'apple' is represented by the sight, sound, taste, and smell of apples.

What is a key criticism of the classical approach to concepts?

It fails to account for typicality effects and family resemblance among category members.

What is an example of a typicality effect?

People are faster to identify a robin as a bird compared to a penguin or an ostrich.

What does the prototype approach suggest about category membership?

Features are sufficient but not necessary for category membership, and there may not be a single prototype for the entire category.

What is the significance of personal experiences in the exemplar approach?

Exemplars are memories of real experiences that inform how we categorize objects.

How does the concepts based on world knowledge approach differ from other approaches?

It emphasizes the importance of the purpose or goal of an object in categorization.

What is embodied cognition as related to perceptual symbols theory?

It refers to the idea that cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the body's interactions with the world.