PSYC231 Cognitive Psychology Content for Test
Family resemblance theory - ANS-members of a category have features that appear to
be characteristic of category members but may not be possessed by every member
Prototype theory - ANS-a theory in which concepts or word meanings are formed
around average or typical values
Prototypes - ANS-a mental image or best example of a category eg for vehicles it would
be "car"
Non verbal concepts - ANS-Concept which you can not easily describe, such as "spiral"
or "green"
Fuzzy boundaries - ANS-Items in categories further away from the average, they may
be blurry/not easily placed into that category
Exemplar theory - ANS-We make category judgments by comparing a new instance
with stored memories for other instances of the category
Knowledge-based approach - ANS-We come up with categories depending on our
goals and context. For example if we are trying to colour coordinate, we categorise
"things that are brown". Knowledge is needed to understand the categorisation as some
items are atypical but still a part of the category (eg birds + flightless birds)
Embodied cognition - ANS-Grounding abstract concepts in perception, action, and
emotion. Visually seeing a concept (eg tickling, which is hard to describe) can be
grounded in the action.
Harpainter (2020) - ANS-Neuroimaging of abstract concepts - related to either motor
tasks or visual system. These abstract words have a representation that is grounded in
motor or visual as these areas of the brain were activated.
The hub and spoke model - ANS-A model of semantic knowledge that proposes that
areas of the brain that are associated with different functions are connected to the
anterior temporal lobe, which integrates information from these areas.
ATL - ANS-Anterior Temporal Lobe
Semantic Dementia - ANS-Condition in which there is a general loss of knowledge for
all concepts (eg can hear a dog bark but cannot relate it back to a concept so they don't
know what it is)
Typicality effect - ANS-The finding that the more typical members of a category are
classified more quickly than the less typical category members
,Ad Hoc Categories - ANS-categories created spontaneously to fulfill a goal (things to
sell at garage sell, things to take out of a burning house); "for this purpose"
Perception anticipation theory - ANS-Our visual imagery (imagining an image) is similar
to our visual perception (physically viewing an image) as they activate the same brain
area in the visual cortex
Common features approach - ANS-A category is formed by items having the same
features, and these features define the category. Limitations: irl features contradict each
other and create fuzzy boundaries
Hierarchies of concepts - ANS-Superordinate
Basic - most commonly used/identified
Subordinate-level
Superordinate - ANS-In a category, the overarching concept (eg furniture with chair ->
lounge chair below)
Basic - ANS-In a category, the mid level concept (eg chair, with furniture above and
lounge chair below)
Subordinate - ANS-In a category, the specific concept/item (eg lounge chair, with chair -
> furniture above)
Hierarchies of concepts limitations - ANS-Familiarity - most people use basic level eg
plants, but botanists would use subordinate/specific names
Netwrod of concepts - ANS-Different theory of organising concepts than hierarchal
Word association task - ANS-A procedure in which the participant is asked to produce a
word in response to a prompt. Tests semantic relatedness
Spreading of activation - ANS-Occurs when one item brought into working memory
triggers an activation of related memory
What is sound? - ANS-Waves and vibrations AND a cognitive process
Pragmatics - ANS-the appropriate use of language in different contexts eg
conversations between two people
Semantics - ANS-Literal meaning of words and sentences
Syntax - ANS-Sentence structure, phrases, grammar
Morphology - ANS-Units of meaning involved in word formation
, Root morpheme - ANS-A morpheme that can stand on its own as a word eg jump
Bound morpheme - ANS-A morpheme that must be "bound" with another morpheme to
form a word. eg ing, ed, (prefixes and suffixes)
Phonology - ANS-The sound system of a language. English has 46 phonemes
Phonetics - ANS-Speech sounds
Semanticity - ANS-The association of linguistic signals with aspects of the social,
cultural, and physical world of a speech community
Arbitrariness - ANS-A property of language describing the fact that there is no natural
connection between a linguistic form and its meaning eg "cat" has no relation to a
physical cat
Displacement - ANS-Can refer to events and objects not present. Eg. able to talk about
things that happened yesterday or in other room.
Productivity - ANS-An infinite number of sentences can be generated and understood
with finite knowledge and resources.
Segmentation - ANS-The pauses in our speech don't appear between words they
appear in the middle of words
Co-articulation - ANS-The production of one phoneme is influenced by the preceding
and proceeding phonemes
Individual differences in voices - ANS-Gender, age, emotion and accent can effect the
sound waves of our speech
Categorical perception - ANS-The ability to perceive sounds as belonging to different
phoneme categories (e.g. that ability to differentiate between /p/ and /b/)
Statistical regularities - ANS-Regularities in language that occur frequently
Phonemic restoration - ANS-A kind of perceptual completion in which listeners seem to
perceive obscured or missing speech sounds eg "the (x)eel was on the shoe" (heel")
"the (x)eel was on the table" (meal)
The McGurk Effect - ANS-A perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction
between hearing and vision in speech perception
Broca's area - ANS-Controls syntax of language - the set of rules that govern how
language combines words into sentences
Family resemblance theory - ANS-members of a category have features that appear to
be characteristic of category members but may not be possessed by every member
Prototype theory - ANS-a theory in which concepts or word meanings are formed
around average or typical values
Prototypes - ANS-a mental image or best example of a category eg for vehicles it would
be "car"
Non verbal concepts - ANS-Concept which you can not easily describe, such as "spiral"
or "green"
Fuzzy boundaries - ANS-Items in categories further away from the average, they may
be blurry/not easily placed into that category
Exemplar theory - ANS-We make category judgments by comparing a new instance
with stored memories for other instances of the category
Knowledge-based approach - ANS-We come up with categories depending on our
goals and context. For example if we are trying to colour coordinate, we categorise
"things that are brown". Knowledge is needed to understand the categorisation as some
items are atypical but still a part of the category (eg birds + flightless birds)
Embodied cognition - ANS-Grounding abstract concepts in perception, action, and
emotion. Visually seeing a concept (eg tickling, which is hard to describe) can be
grounded in the action.
Harpainter (2020) - ANS-Neuroimaging of abstract concepts - related to either motor
tasks or visual system. These abstract words have a representation that is grounded in
motor or visual as these areas of the brain were activated.
The hub and spoke model - ANS-A model of semantic knowledge that proposes that
areas of the brain that are associated with different functions are connected to the
anterior temporal lobe, which integrates information from these areas.
ATL - ANS-Anterior Temporal Lobe
Semantic Dementia - ANS-Condition in which there is a general loss of knowledge for
all concepts (eg can hear a dog bark but cannot relate it back to a concept so they don't
know what it is)
Typicality effect - ANS-The finding that the more typical members of a category are
classified more quickly than the less typical category members
,Ad Hoc Categories - ANS-categories created spontaneously to fulfill a goal (things to
sell at garage sell, things to take out of a burning house); "for this purpose"
Perception anticipation theory - ANS-Our visual imagery (imagining an image) is similar
to our visual perception (physically viewing an image) as they activate the same brain
area in the visual cortex
Common features approach - ANS-A category is formed by items having the same
features, and these features define the category. Limitations: irl features contradict each
other and create fuzzy boundaries
Hierarchies of concepts - ANS-Superordinate
Basic - most commonly used/identified
Subordinate-level
Superordinate - ANS-In a category, the overarching concept (eg furniture with chair ->
lounge chair below)
Basic - ANS-In a category, the mid level concept (eg chair, with furniture above and
lounge chair below)
Subordinate - ANS-In a category, the specific concept/item (eg lounge chair, with chair -
> furniture above)
Hierarchies of concepts limitations - ANS-Familiarity - most people use basic level eg
plants, but botanists would use subordinate/specific names
Netwrod of concepts - ANS-Different theory of organising concepts than hierarchal
Word association task - ANS-A procedure in which the participant is asked to produce a
word in response to a prompt. Tests semantic relatedness
Spreading of activation - ANS-Occurs when one item brought into working memory
triggers an activation of related memory
What is sound? - ANS-Waves and vibrations AND a cognitive process
Pragmatics - ANS-the appropriate use of language in different contexts eg
conversations between two people
Semantics - ANS-Literal meaning of words and sentences
Syntax - ANS-Sentence structure, phrases, grammar
Morphology - ANS-Units of meaning involved in word formation
, Root morpheme - ANS-A morpheme that can stand on its own as a word eg jump
Bound morpheme - ANS-A morpheme that must be "bound" with another morpheme to
form a word. eg ing, ed, (prefixes and suffixes)
Phonology - ANS-The sound system of a language. English has 46 phonemes
Phonetics - ANS-Speech sounds
Semanticity - ANS-The association of linguistic signals with aspects of the social,
cultural, and physical world of a speech community
Arbitrariness - ANS-A property of language describing the fact that there is no natural
connection between a linguistic form and its meaning eg "cat" has no relation to a
physical cat
Displacement - ANS-Can refer to events and objects not present. Eg. able to talk about
things that happened yesterday or in other room.
Productivity - ANS-An infinite number of sentences can be generated and understood
with finite knowledge and resources.
Segmentation - ANS-The pauses in our speech don't appear between words they
appear in the middle of words
Co-articulation - ANS-The production of one phoneme is influenced by the preceding
and proceeding phonemes
Individual differences in voices - ANS-Gender, age, emotion and accent can effect the
sound waves of our speech
Categorical perception - ANS-The ability to perceive sounds as belonging to different
phoneme categories (e.g. that ability to differentiate between /p/ and /b/)
Statistical regularities - ANS-Regularities in language that occur frequently
Phonemic restoration - ANS-A kind of perceptual completion in which listeners seem to
perceive obscured or missing speech sounds eg "the (x)eel was on the shoe" (heel")
"the (x)eel was on the table" (meal)
The McGurk Effect - ANS-A perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction
between hearing and vision in speech perception
Broca's area - ANS-Controls syntax of language - the set of rules that govern how
language combines words into sentences
