Prototypes and The Typicality Effect

1. Prototypes and The Typicality Effect Psychology 452-Senior Seminar Markieta Rose

2. Background-Prototypes • Prototypes are introduced in the world of Cognitive Science with The Network Approach • Mind as a Web • Focuses on principles of operation and organization within the brain

3. Prototypes • Are defined as a generic or idealized representation of a conceptual category. • Part of Collins and Quillian study (1969) focusing on a hierarchical semantic network

4. Collins and Quillian (1969) • Method: sentence variation task [T/F] • “A canary is a bird” • “A canary is a animal” • The answer was dependent upon activation of both “bird” nodes and “animal” nodes” • Activation radiates out through the network until the nodes overlap • Once the nodes overlap, the participant knows that the two are related • Reaction Time

5. Prototypes ctd. • Animal>Bird>Canary [Hierarchical] • Corresponding nodes may be: • Can sing • Can fly • Yellow • Canary=Bird is likely to be recognized faster than Canary=yellow • Thus the prototype (categorization) is Canary=Bird

6. Prototypes ctd. • A bird such as a robin is though of as being more representative or prototypical of the category of birds than another type of bird, for example, the penguin. (247)

7. Background-The Typicality Effect • The Typicality Effect is introduced into the Cognitive World in the Evolutionary Approach • Evolution and Cognitive Processes • Categorization (The Typicality Effect) • Memory • Logical reasoning • Judgment under certainty • Language

8. Categorization • Mental categories as “either-or” • Categories are typically continuous • Can range from being very representative and prototypical to unrepresentative and being mixed up with a different category

9. Typicality Effect • The phenomenon that human participants are faster to judge stereotypical members as belonging to a category • A bird such as a canary is though of as being more representative or prototypical of the category of birds than another type of bird, for example, the penguin. (247) • Our typical idea of a bird is something that is small, sings, flies • Therefore, a canary is more typical of a bird than a penguin

10. What purpose do typicality-based categories serve? • There must have been a selective advantage • The Advantage: “if we know something about an item of which we have had experience, then it becomes possible to form judgments that have to do with related items” (248) • Past experiences are beneficial • Generalize from what we know to what we do not know

11. Reference Friedenberg, J. & Silverman, G. (2006) Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Study of the Mind. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.