- Definitional approach
- Family resemblance 
- Prototype approach
- Exemplar approach

Approaches to Categorization

Psychological constructionist believe that emotions are the result of applying learned categories to our present experiences.

Cause of Emotion: Categorization

The cognitive process by which concepts are sorted into categories. This process structures our experiences and enables us to give them greater personal meaning.

Alma College

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Google

Encompasses all of the possible examples of a concept. For example the category of dogs includes poodles, pugs and bulldogs. 

Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Niedenthal, P. M., & Ric, F. (2017). Psychology of Emotion (2nd ed.). Psychology Press.

Psychology of Emotion

Prototype

Larger more general categories and concepts are at the top and flow into smaller more specific subcategories and concepts creating a hierarchy.

Hierarchical organization

People can have brain damage where their memory is impaired, but only when trying to identify certain types of categories. For example, some patients with brain damage from encephalitis were able to remember non-animal objects (i.e. furniture and tools) but were not able to identify animals.

Category-specific memory impairment 

One way to categorize things is to separate them into artifacts (non-living) and living things.

Artifacts and Living things

- Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis
- Semantic category approach
- Multiple factor approach
- Crowding
- Embodied approach

Hypotheses about knowledge of categories and concepts in the brain

A person is trying to mentally group the following items: a car, a bus, a bicycle, and a skateboard. Which of the following statements best explains why 'Vehicles' is a more cognitively useful category for these items than 'Objects with wheels'?

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