The concept of basic level categorization

Categories Aristotle Classical categorization first appears in the context of Western Philosophy in the work of Platowho, in his Statesman dialogue, introduces the approach of grouping objects based on their similar properties. This approach was further explored and systematized by Aristotle in his Categories treatise, where he analyzes the differences between classes and objects. Aristotle also applied intensively the classical categorization scheme in his approach to the classification of living beings which uses the technique of applying successive narrowing questions such as "Is it an animal or vegetable? The classical Aristotelian view claims that categories are discrete entities characterized by a set of properties which are shared by their members.

However, these issues are closely related, since memory recall of facts could be considered a "trivial" conceptual process where prior exemplars representing the concept are invariant.

Similarly, while discrimination is not the same as initial concept learning, discrimination processes are involved in refining concepts by means of the repeated presentation of exemplars. Constructs such as a schema and a script are examples of complex concepts.

A schema is an organization of smaller concepts or features and is revised by situational information to assist in comprehension.

A script on the other hand is a list of actions that a person follows in order to complete a desired goal. An example of a script would be the process of buying a CD.

There are several actions that must occur before the actual act of purchasing the CD and a script provides a sequence of the necessary actions and proper order of these actions in order to be successful in purchasing the CD.

The Phenomenology of Dissipative/Replicative Structures

Methods of learning a concept[ edit ] Discovery — Every baby discovers concepts for itself, such as discovering that each of its fingers can be individually controlled or that care givers are individuals. Although this is perception driven, formation of the concept is more than memorizing perceptions.

Examples — Supervised or unsupervised generalizing from examples may lead to learning a new concept, but concept formation is more than generalizing from examples. Words — Hearing or reading new words leads to learning new concepts, but forming a new concept is more than learning a dictionary definition.

A person may have previously formed a new concept before encountering the word or phrase for it. Exemplars comparison and contrast — An efficient way to learn new categories and to induce new categorization rules is by comparing a few example objects while being informed about their categorical relation.

Comparing two exemplars while being informed that the two are from the same category allows identifying the attributes shared by the category members, as it exemplifies variability within this category. On the other hand, contrasting two exemplars while being informed that the two are from different categories may allow identifying attributes with diagnostic value.

Within category comparison and between categories contrast are not similarly useful for category learning Hammer et al. Invention — When prehistoric people who lacked tools used their fingernails to scrape food from killed animals or smashed melons, they noticed that a broken stone sometimes had a sharp edge like a fingernail and was therefore suitable for scraping food.

Inventing a stone tool to avoid broken fingernails was a new concept. Theoretical issues[ edit ] In general, the theoretical issues underlying concept learning are those underlying induction.

Some of the broad theoretical ideas are also discussed by Watanabe, Solomonoff a,band Rendell ; see the reference list below. Modern psychological theories[ edit ] It is difficult to make any general statements about human or animal concept learning without already assuming a particular psychological theory of concept learning.

Although the classical views of concepts and concept learning in philosophy speak of a process of abstractiondata compressionsimplification, and summarization, currently popular psychological theories of concept learning diverge on all these basic points.

The history of psychology has seen the rise and fall of many theories about concept learning. Classical conditioning as defined by Pavlov created the earliest experimental technique.Concept learning, also known as category learning, concept attainment, and concept formation, is defined by Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin () as "the search for and listing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars from non exemplars of various categories".More simply put, concepts are the mental categories that help us classify objects, events, or ideas, building on the.

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The Evolution of the DRE Officer and Program The Dark Ages In the s, prior to the establishment of the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Program, the following scenario was regularly played out on the streets of American communities: While on routine patrol in city traffic in a marked police car, the watchful officer suddenly directs his attention to a specific car.

The basic level categories not only share many attributes but also have attributes that differ from those of items in other basic-level categories. Rosch tested her claim that categorization is fastest at the basic level, by asking to verify the identity of an object at each of the three level in the hierarchy.

Prototype theory is a mode of graded categorization in cognitive science, where some members of a category are more central than others.

For example, when asked to give an example of the concept furniture, chair is more frequently cited than, say, stool. Fundamental Principles of Cognition If cognitive science is a real and autonomous discipline, it should be founded on cognitive principles that pertain only to cognition, and which every advanced cognitive agent (whether carbon- or silicon-based) should employ.

Concepts are the constituents of thoughts. Consequently, they are crucial to such psychological processes as categorization, inference, memory, learning, and decision-making.