Copy (psychology)
In psychology, an example is a mental knowledge structure that contains information about objects or experiences in a specific, non-generalized form. Samples, like schemes , should not be understood as a description of an entity in memory, but as an illustration of how learned knowledge can be used in information processing.
Copies can be formed through the perception of objects, hallucinations or second-hand information.
General functioning of items
Cognitively represented specimens can be activated either by internal (based on the experience of the individual) or external (from the environment) cues. A cue (e.g. robin) activates all specimens that are similar to it (e.g. all representations of birds) at the same time. If new stimuli are assessed or categorized, the stimulus is compared to all activated specimens (i.e. all activated bird representations). If generalizations (e.g. whether all birds are singing) regarding a stimulus are required, all specimens that contain similar features (i.e., could possibly be birds for whatever reason) are activated and summed. In this case, the activated copies work in a similar way to a schema.
The main characteristic of different specimens of a certain category is that they contain information about the simultaneous occurrence of characteristics (e.g. singing) and thus enable the person to find connections within characteristic categories (e.g. all birds sing).
For example, most people know that the likelihood that a bird can sing depends on the size of the bird (an ostrich doesn't sing, a robin does). This logical conclusion can be clarified by comparing different specimens of the bird category: In order to be able to make a statement about whether an ostrich can sing, the activation of the scheme bird (an ostrich is a bird) would lead to the fact that one would say that an ostrich can sing, provided the information "birds can sing" is included in the scheme.
However, if all stored specimens of birds (e.g. the specimen robin , specimen swan , etc.) are activated simultaneously and compared on the basis of the ability to sing, it will quickly become apparent that small birds like the robin can sing, but a swan can no more. The swan is bigger than the robin. Thus the singing ability (the comparative trait) seems to decrease with the size of the bird. Since an ostrich is larger than a swan and apparently its ability to sing depends on the size of the bird, the person would say that an ostrich cannot sing.
Like schemes, items can also have an impact on the interpretation of information, attention and judgment processes.
literature
- Medin, DL, & Schaffer, MM (1978). Context theory of classification learning. Psychological Review, (85) , 207 238.
- Smith, ER (1988). Category accessibility effects in a simulated exemplar-only memory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , (24), 448 463.
- Smith, ER, & Zárate, MA (1992). Copy-based model of social judgment. Psychological Review, (99), 3 21.
- Smith, ER, & Queller, S. (2001). Mental representations. In Tesser, A., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intraindividual processes. London: Blackwell Publishers.
- Whittlesea, BWA (1987) Preservation of specific experiences in the representation of general knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, (13) , 3 17.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Smith, ER, & Queller, S. (2001). Mental representations. In Tesser, A., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intraindividual processes. London: Blackwell Publishers.