Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Cognitive Psychology: Prototype and Causal Based Theories of Category Formation
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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
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.
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Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_TJcform1.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
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. The difference in the two
theories can be seen in such examples of the categorization of a "bird". From a prototype perspective, the features of the bird category include that birds can fly "and" they
have wings (for a typical bird). From a causal perspective however, the categorization of a bird includes the causal relationship which exists between the features in that birds can fly
"because" they have wings and therefore prior knowledge cannot be ignored when dealing with category formation but instead is incorporated in mental representation of the category. Prototype Category Formation
Cognitive theories which relate to prototype category formation relate to the idea that "concepts are stored as prototypes or typical members of a category" and the prototype can often be
considered as the "average or idealized example" of the concept (Keehner, 2003, p. 1). The prototype theory of categorization is based on the idea that items and concepts have different
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