ESSAY ON: Cognitive Psychology: Prototype and Causal Based Theories of Category Formation

Number of Pages 8

This research paper: This is an 8 page paper comparing and contrasting the prototype and causal-based theories of category formation. In cognitive psychology, category formation is considered one of the most fundamental aspects of understanding mental representation. Within the area of category formation however, there are several theories which appear to conflict in some aspects. Two of these theories are the prototype theory of category formation and the causal theory of category formation. In the most basic sense, the prototype theory argues that individuals categorize items based on the typicality level of the objects in comparison with the “prototype” concept or image that an individual has. When new objects are encountered by an individual, a comparison of features based on prototypes takes place until that object is categorized. From a causal model theory perspective however, the categorization process also takes into account prior knowledge and theories of how the world works in addition to the causal relationships between features. Causal theorists find that the prototype theories base categorization from an independent and “probabilistic” viewpoint whereas individuals in fact use their causal knowledge in order to categorize and build relationships conceptually. Bibliography lists 8 sources.


File: D0_TJcform1.rtf


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