PSYCH 2210 FINAL EXAM VERIFIED STUDY GUIDE
Categorization - Answers - cognitive process of classifying items or events into groups
based on one or more common features
Discrimination - Answers - cognitive process of distinguishing items or events based on
distinct features
concept formation - Answers - abstract set of rules that define category membership, or
mental criteria that allow items/events to be grouped together
rules for membership - Answers - traits (ex. small size, beak shape, food sources)
True or False: Categories without concepts - Answers - True, it is possible to group
items without understanding the abstract rules used to classify them
examplars - Answers - items/events within a category
novel exemplars - Answers - exemplars an animal is unfamiliar with
Why use novel exemplars in experiments? - Answers - - Animals can learn to
differentially respond to stimuli without forming categories
- Successful categorization of novel exemplars indicates the formation of a category
what kind of forms does concept formation exist in? - Answers - Adaptive value
Predator/prey
Approach/avoidance
Generalized learning
adaptive value - Answers - the extent to which a trait benefits a species by influencing
the evolutionary fitness of the species
generalized learning - Answers - what is true of one category member can be applied to
other category members without re-learning
4 types of categorization - Answers - Perceptual categorization
Functional categorization
Relational categorization
Social categorization
perceptual categorization - Answers - Uses sensory input from one modality to classify
items
, 3 components of perceptual categorization - Answers - Stimulus generalization
Feature recognition
Natural categories
stimulus generalization - Answers - Experimental studies of perceptual categorization
often rely on stimulus generalization tests
- subject are trained to respond to one sensory stimulus (e.g., light of a specific
wavelength)
- then tested with a range of stimuli that vary across that sensory dimension to see if
they respond to similar stimuli
Goal: to measure the strength of responding to different stimuli -> resulting in a gradient
of response around the original trained stimulus
feature recognition - Answers - when animals combine multiple elements (e.g., lines,
curves, and colors) to categorize complex stimuli
pseodcategories - Answers - arbitrary groupings
Eleanor Rosh - Answers - a cognitive psychologist who argued that many categorization
experiments in the lad had little resemblance to how people classify stimuli in the real
world
natural categories - Answers - Cognitive processes for feature recognition may be basis
for identifying prey, predators, and other groups of ecological relevant stimuli
birdsong - Answers - Complex sound pattern that vary across time
sound is the product of what two things? - Answers - vibration and is transmitted in sine
waves
amplitude (i.e., intensity) - Answers - height of sine wave
frequency (i.e., pitch) - Answers - width of sine wave
spectograms - Answers - a visualization of sound that combines spectral, amplitude,
and temporal features
Habituation-dishabituation - Answers - repeat stimulus → response drops → new
stimulus → response returns → shows discrimination ability
- research method used to figure out what an animal (or infant) can perceive or tell apart
functional categorization - Answers - the cognitive process of grouping items or events
together according to a shared meaning or association
relational categorization - Answers - groups items/events together based on similar
connections or relational properties, based on relative rather than absolute variables
Categorization - Answers - cognitive process of classifying items or events into groups
based on one or more common features
Discrimination - Answers - cognitive process of distinguishing items or events based on
distinct features
concept formation - Answers - abstract set of rules that define category membership, or
mental criteria that allow items/events to be grouped together
rules for membership - Answers - traits (ex. small size, beak shape, food sources)
True or False: Categories without concepts - Answers - True, it is possible to group
items without understanding the abstract rules used to classify them
examplars - Answers - items/events within a category
novel exemplars - Answers - exemplars an animal is unfamiliar with
Why use novel exemplars in experiments? - Answers - - Animals can learn to
differentially respond to stimuli without forming categories
- Successful categorization of novel exemplars indicates the formation of a category
what kind of forms does concept formation exist in? - Answers - Adaptive value
Predator/prey
Approach/avoidance
Generalized learning
adaptive value - Answers - the extent to which a trait benefits a species by influencing
the evolutionary fitness of the species
generalized learning - Answers - what is true of one category member can be applied to
other category members without re-learning
4 types of categorization - Answers - Perceptual categorization
Functional categorization
Relational categorization
Social categorization
perceptual categorization - Answers - Uses sensory input from one modality to classify
items
, 3 components of perceptual categorization - Answers - Stimulus generalization
Feature recognition
Natural categories
stimulus generalization - Answers - Experimental studies of perceptual categorization
often rely on stimulus generalization tests
- subject are trained to respond to one sensory stimulus (e.g., light of a specific
wavelength)
- then tested with a range of stimuli that vary across that sensory dimension to see if
they respond to similar stimuli
Goal: to measure the strength of responding to different stimuli -> resulting in a gradient
of response around the original trained stimulus
feature recognition - Answers - when animals combine multiple elements (e.g., lines,
curves, and colors) to categorize complex stimuli
pseodcategories - Answers - arbitrary groupings
Eleanor Rosh - Answers - a cognitive psychologist who argued that many categorization
experiments in the lad had little resemblance to how people classify stimuli in the real
world
natural categories - Answers - Cognitive processes for feature recognition may be basis
for identifying prey, predators, and other groups of ecological relevant stimuli
birdsong - Answers - Complex sound pattern that vary across time
sound is the product of what two things? - Answers - vibration and is transmitted in sine
waves
amplitude (i.e., intensity) - Answers - height of sine wave
frequency (i.e., pitch) - Answers - width of sine wave
spectograms - Answers - a visualization of sound that combines spectral, amplitude,
and temporal features
Habituation-dishabituation - Answers - repeat stimulus → response drops → new
stimulus → response returns → shows discrimination ability
- research method used to figure out what an animal (or infant) can perceive or tell apart
functional categorization - Answers - the cognitive process of grouping items or events
together according to a shared meaning or association
relational categorization - Answers - groups items/events together based on similar
connections or relational properties, based on relative rather than absolute variables
