Cognition Unit #2

Semantic Memory

General knowledge not tied to personal experience.

Episodic Memory

Autobiographical events linked to specific times.

What is the Collins & Quillian Model?

A hierarchical structure for organizing memory.

What type of tasks supported the hierarchical organization in the Collins & Quillian Model?

Reaction times in sentence verification tasks.

How does distance in pieces of memory affect response time in the Collins & Quillian Model?

More distance takes longer to respond.

Which statement was verified faster: 'A canary is a bird' or 'A canary is an animal'?

'A canary is a bird' was verified faster.

Nodes

Concepts or nouns representing memory elements (e.g., "bird" or "dog").

Properties

Attributes of nodes, including verbs and adjectives (e.g., "has feathers" or "is yellow").

Links

Connections between different memory nodes.

What is Cognitive Economy?

The principle of storing information at the highest node to reduce redundancy.

Give an example of Cognitive Economy.

'Can fly' is stored at the 'bird' level instead of for individual birds like canaries.

What are typicality effects in categorization?

Faster recognition of typical category members.

Which is recognized faster: 'canary is a bird' or 'ostrich is a bird'?

'Canary is a bird' is recognized faster.

Frequency

Stronger connections lead to quicker access to knowledge.

What is Spreading Activation?

A cognitive process where activation spreads from one node to related concepts.

Who conducted research on Spreading Activation in 1971?

Myer & Schvanveldt

Who conducted research on Spreading Activation in 1975?

Collins & Loftus

Give an example of Spreading Activation.

The word 'apple' activates the concept 'fruit'.

What is the Lexical Decision Task?

Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971): A psychological test that measures how quickly people can recognize words.

What is the effect of semantically related word pairs on response times in the Lexical Decision Task?

Faster responses for semantically related word pairs lead to faster response times.

Give an example of semantically related word pairs used in the Lexical Decision Task.

An example is 'doctor' and 'nurse'.

What did Myer & Schvanveldt (1971) find with the Lexical Decision Task?

Level of processing effect. Deeper connections enhance memory retention.

What is the Sentence Verification Task?

A task used to verify truth using hierarchical memory organization.

Who conducted the Sentence Verification Task study?

Collins and Quillian (1969)

What do the findings of the Sentence Verification Task suggest about accessing information?

Categories are the first points of access to search through rather than property.

What does the Sentence Verification Task indicate about distance in hierarchical memory?

Distance still matters in verifying truth.

What evidence does the Sentence Verification Task provide regarding information organization?

It provides evidence that we are sensitive to organizing general information ordered as a hierarchy.

Defining Features

Essential attributes present in every category instance.

Characteristic Features

Typical but not essential attributes of a category.

Feature Comparison Model

Smith, Shoben, & Rips, 1974: Comparison of features to categorize items. More typical examples were verified faster than atypical ones. Faster globally comparing features between a bird, an ostrich, and a bat where it requires less effort. Slower feature search involves only defining features between a bird, a canary, and an ostrich.

Categories

Classes of similar items sharing essential attributes.

Concept

Mental representation of a class and associated knowledge.

Nominal Categories

Defined by strict rules and criteria (e.g., "triangle").

Natural Categories

Categories that exist in nature (e.g., "tree").

Social Categories

Human-defined categories based on societal norms (e.g., "teachers"--gender/occupation).

Artifacts

Categories based on man-made objects.

Ad Hoc Categories

Created for specific purposes or contexts.

Superordinate Categories

Broad categories encompassing many items.

Basic Categories

Preferred level of categorization with maximum similarities.

Subordinate Categories

Highly specific categories with limited members.

Similarity-Based Views

Use bottom-up information for categorization.

Classical View

Categories defined by necessary and sufficient features.

Single Necessary Feature

Every member must possess this feature.

Jointly Sufficient Features

All features must be present for membership.

Probabilistic Views

Category membership is graded and flexible.

Prototype Theory

Concepts represented by idealized average members.

Exemplar Theory

Concepts represented by specific stored examples.

Knowledge-Based Approaches

Use top-down information for categorization.

Essentialism

Categories have a core essence based on beliefs.

Children's Resistance to Transformations

Kids resist changes in natural categories.

Categorization of Games

Different rules create fuzzy boundaries in categories.

What is cognitive economy in the context of categories and concepts?

Cognitive economy refers to the reduction of redundancy by not needing to store information about every single object.

How does categorization allow for inferences?

Categorization allows us to make predictions based on category membership and the information we have in our concepts.