Roles of Knowledge in Cognition 1 Knowledge is often thought of as constituting particular bodies of facts, techniques, and procedures that cultures develop, such as “knowledge of baseball statistics,” “knowledge of the guitar,” “knowledge of how to order a meal in a restaurant.” Knowledge, in its most inclusive sense, and the sense in which the term is used in cognitive psychology, is information about the world that is stored in memory, ranging from the everyday to the formal. It is essential for the competent functioning of most mental processes, not only in memory, language, and thought, but also in perception and attention. Without knowledge, any mental process would stumble into ineffectiveness.

Roles of Knowledge in Cognition 2

Representing Concepts Concepts are general ideas that enable the categorization of unique stimuli as related to one another. Concepts are characterized by dimensions of variation among exemplars. Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.

Contrasting Types of Concepts Rule governed concepts specify the features and relations that define category membership on an all or none basis. Classical view holds assumes defining features are related by a conjunctive rule. Object concepts refer to natural kinds and artifacts that violate the classical view. Characteristic features are disjunctively related, creating a family resemblance structure and a fuzzy boundary. Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.

Neural Representation of Artifacts and Natural Kinds J.B.R.—Associative agnosia was specific to animate natural kinds (e.g., dogs and horses). Retained ability to name inanimate artifacts (e.g., umbrellas and chairs). Damage to ventral and lateral regions of temporal cortex (the “what” pathway) linked to highly specific categorical losses in naming ability. Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.

7

Schema A schema is a cognitive structure that organizes related concepts and integrates past events.  Frames organize the physical environment (e.g., an office frame).  Scripts represent routine activities (e.g., a restaurant script). Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.

Meta-Representation Defined as a mental representation of another mental representation. Thinking about thinking requires meta-representation.  Pretending a banana is a telephone requires a meta- representation linking the two object concepts. Meta- representation thus affords flexible and creative cognition.  Between ages 2-4 the use of meta-representation develops. Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.

Theory of Mind Theory of mind refers to the human ability to infer that others, like ourselves, have mental states. It helps account for why we are not all adherents of solipsism. By age 4 children can not only pretend but can predict the consequences of another having false beliefs. Mindblindness is an inability to understand that others possess mental representations. This seems to underlie the failures in social communication found in autism. Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.

Propositions vs. Images Abstract means of mental representation. Schematic and verbal. Each proposition is an assertion that may be true or false. Coded as a relation and arguments (e.g., Fred is tall). Perceptual means of mental representation. Concrete and nonverbal. One image conveys Represent multiple features and relations. Can images be decomposed into propositions? Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.

Functional Equivalence Hypothesis Visual imagery, while not identical to perception, is mentally represented and functions the same as perception. An image is isomorphic to the referent object (second-order), meaning spatial relations are analogous. An image is an analog representation of the object, as shown by mental rotation and image scanning. Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 2e by Ronald T. Kellogg ©SAGE Publications, Inc.