Question

Explain categorization and the two main types of categories—natural categories and artificial categories. Describe how the prototype theory explains the formation of categories.

Answer 1

• Categorization is the process through which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, classified, and understood.
• The word “categorization” implies that objects are sorted into categories, usually for some specific purpose. This process is vital to cognition. Our minds are not capable of treating every object as unique; otherwise, we would experience too great a cognitive load to be able to process the world around us.
• Therefore, our minds develop ” concepts,” or mental representations of categories of objects. Categorization is fundamental in language, prediction, inference, decision making, and all kinds of environmental interaction.
  
• Categorization can also be viewed as the process of grouping things based on prototypes. The concept of “necessary and sufficient conditions” usually doesn’t work in the messy boundaries of the natural world. Prototype theory is a different way of classifying objects.
• Essentially, a person has a “prototype” for what an object is; so a person’s prototype for DOG may be a mental image of a dog they knew as a child. Their prototype would be their mental idea of a “typical dog.”
• They would classify objects as being dogs or not based on how closely they matched their prototype. Different people have different prototypes for the same kind of object, depending on their experiences.
• A natural category is one which items, which can only be found in the natural world, are placed in.Natural categories are defined by multiple,co-occurring attributes,none of which is primary.For example,chair categiry has members like desk chairs,dining chairs,lounge chairs etc. and the category is defined by multiple factors like seat,back,four legs,maybe a cushion etc.
• Artificial categories are defined by a single attribute,for instance the category,red things might have as members things like apples,fire engines,maple leaves etc.The membership in the category depends upon one single attribute of being red.
• Artificial categories dont share anything in common,lnowing that something is red doesnt tell you anything except that it is a red thing,whereas,natural categories share a lot in common.Knowing about a chair allows to make inferences about the atrributes it will have and what will it share in common with other chairs.