The subject must determine whether sentence is true or not (i.e. "Cadillac is a car brand"), and the reaction time to answering is measured.

Sentence verification technique

The reaction time for verifying sentences that involve prototypical members of a category is faster than less prototypical counterparts from the same category. This is attributed to the first member being more typical than the latter (i.e an apple is identified as a fruit faster than a pomegranate).

Typicality effect

Membership to a category is based on how close something is to a prototype (typical/average member) for that category. Prototypes have high family resemblance.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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

Approaches to Categorization

Proposed by Wittgenstein to accommodate for the fact that not every concept in a category fits with its definition. Takes into account what in common (size, shape, functionality) something has with other members of a family.

Family resemblance

Prototype

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

A concept is a member of a category if it meets the definition of that category. The approach works well for straight forward concepts (i.e. shapes) but less so for more abstract ones (i.e. animals, chairs).

Definitional Approach to Categorization

Prototype Approach to Categorization

Membership to a category is based on how close something is to exemplar members of that category. Exemplar members of a category are those that a person has experienced before. Differs from the prototype approach because it considers many examples of a family instead of an "average".

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