Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Prototypes: In Gärdenfors' theory of conceptual spaces, a prototype is a central point in a region of conceptual space that represents a typical member of a category. See also Conceptual space, P. Gärdenfors, Stereotypes, Categories, Categorization, Classification._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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P. Gärdenfors on Prototypes - Dictionary of Arguments
I 26 Prototypes/Properties/Gärdenfors: (see Rosch, 1975(1), 1978, Mervis & Rosch, 1981(2), Lakoff, 1987(3)): we can conceive prototypes of properties as central points in a region within domains. --- I 27 Prototypes/Properties/Gärdenfors: Properties like e.g. warm or e.g. large have no prototypes. They correspond to open regions in a domain where no point can be identified as the most typical. The domain can then be divided by a Voronoi tessellation. Similarity: a Voronoi tessellation can provide a similarity measure in a domain that provides a set of categories along with a set of prototypes. This division into discrete spaces makes it possible for only a finite number of words to be used to refer to the regions. This explains a cognitive economy when learning terms. --- I 28 The tessellation of the domain in regions can be finer and coarser. --- I 42 Prototype/Terms/Learning/Gärdenfors: if we accept prototypes when learning terms, we can assume that these are within the conceptual space geometrically between the localizations of learning examples for the corresponding term. Learning: When learning, i.e. the introduction of new examples, the geometrical localization of the prototype shifts, i.e., the center of the domain formed by the examples. --- I 43 This makes the terms dynamic. The boundary lines of the Voronoi tesselation are also shifting, that is, a new tessellation comes about. Categories: in the course of shifting the boundaries of tessellation (when learning new examples for terms), new categories are also emerging, but only those categories that are adjacent to the modified prototypes. Learning: this learning mechanism allows extremely fast learning. --- I 44 Errors: errors in learning are also explained: the child has only names for a few animals that are all located in the same category. Through the adding of new examples, the conceptual space animal becomes finer and new prototypes are established. > Vagueness/Gärdenfors, Language acquisition/Gärdenfors). 1. Rosch, E. (1975). Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 192-233. 2. Rosch, E. (1978). Prototype classification and logical classification. The two systems. In E. Scholnik (Ed.), New trends in cognitive representation: Challenges to Piaget's theory (pp. 73-86). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 3. Mervis, C. & Rosch, E. (1981) Categorization of natural objects. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 89-115. 4. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Gä I P. Gärdenfors The Geometry of Meaning Cambridge 2014 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-18