Concepts embody our knowledge of the kinds of things there are in the world. Tying our past experiences to our present interactions with the environment, they enable us to recognize and understand new objects and events. Concepts are also relevant to understanding domains such as social situations, personality types, and even artistic styles. Yet like other phenomenologically simple cognitive processes such as walking or understanding speech, concept formation and use are maddeningly complex.Research since the 1970s and the decline of the "classical view" of concepts have greatly illuminated the psychology of concepts. But persistent theoretical disputes have sometimes obscured this progress. The Big Book of Concepts goes beyond those disputes to reveal the advances that have been made, focusing on the major empirical discoveries. By reviewing and evaluating research on diverse topics such as category learning, word meaning, conceptual development in infants and children, and the basic level of categorization, the book develops a much broader range of criteria than is usual for evaluating theories of concepts.

Introduction

2 Typicality and the Classical View of Categories

3 Theories 41

Appendix: The Generalized Context Model 65

4 Exemplar Effects and Theories 73

5 Miscellaneous Learning Topics 115

6 Knowledge Effects 141

7 Taxonomic Organization and the Basic Level of Concepts 199

8 Induction 243

9 Concepts in Infancy 271

10 Conceptual Development 317

11 Word Meaning 385

12 Conceptual Combination 443

13 Anti-Summary and Conclusions 477

Notes 499

References 519

Name Index 547

Subject Index

Gregory L. Murphy is Professor of Psychology at New York University.

배송정보

교환/반품 정보