The Representation and Acquisition of Concepts
Psychology 747, Section 4097 - Fall 2003
Room 115 Psychology
Meeting Time: Tuesday-Thursday, 2:30-3:45
Instructor: Professor Robert Goldstone
Office: 338 Psychology
Office hours: Mon, Wed 2:00-3:30
Phone: 855-4853
Email: rgoldsto@indiana.edu
Web site: http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/rgoldsto/courses/concepts/index.htm
Course Description
Without concepts, thought itself would be impossible. Concepts serve critical roles in organizing our thoughts, perception communication, prediction, and inference. This seminar will explore issues in concept learning and representation. Topics in philosophy, computer science, and developmental psychology will be covered, but the preponderance of the material will be from cognitive psychology. Among other topics, we will discuss prototype, exemplar, and ÒtheoryÓ theories of conceptual representation, the interconnectedness and modularity of concepts, computational models of concept acquisition, and how concepts are changed and created. For a full set of topics covered, consult the references below.
The
three principle obligations of seminar participants will be to lead one of the
fourteen class discussions, read the weekly assignment, and to actively
participate in all class discussions.
To facilitate the last two obligations, participants are required to
either prepare a one-page written reaction to the weekly readings or to respond
to the reaction of another student.
Given the occasionally overwhelming pressures on students, participants
are exempted from preparing reaction pages for two seminars of their
choice. Thus, you must prepare a
reaction or reaction-reaction for 11 of the weeks. These should be evenly divided into 6 reactions, and 5
reaction-reactions. Reactions will
be coarsely graded (unacceptable, acceptable, and outstanding) and will receive
brief comments by me.
Leading a Seminar
The
purpose of the seminar leader is two-fold - to review the fundamental points of
the readings, and to generate and direct active discussion. You should prepare about 25 minutes of
instructional monologue. Overhead
transparencies, powerpoint slides, and handouts are encouraged. You may assume that everybody has read
the material, but you may want to explain aspects of the paper that other
students could have difficulty understanding. Do not attempt to cover all of the material in
detail. Rather, select a handful
of points that seem to be of fundamental importance. Consider time to be a precious resource; do not waste it on
digressions. Two ingredients of a
successfully run seminar are that the leader focuses his or her comments on
critical themes in the material, and opens up discussion so that the seminar
participants are actively involved.
Reaction Pages
Late
reaction pages will not be accepted (the point of the reaction page is to have
participants think about their reaction before the seminar). You will submit your reaction pages using
the web-based Annotate system developed by Indiana University's cognitive
science program. This system is
accessed at:
http://www.indiana.edu/~annotate/
Annotate
has been designed so that students can read each other's reactions, add their
comments to the reaction, comment on other students' comments, etc. I will also make comments that can be
read by all students, and assign grades that can be read by only the receiving
student. Reaction pages will be
coarsely graded (check minus = unacceptable, check = acceptable, and check plus
= outstanding). The most common
grade is "check," and do not be surprised if most of your reactions
are not rated as "outstanding."
I reserve this grade for truly noteworthy and insightful contributions.
The
purpose of the weekly reaction page requirement is for seminar participants to
develop particular perspectives on their readings. As E. M. Forester said, ÒHow can I know what I think until I
see what I say [write]?Ó The act
of writing forces thoughts to be more precise and organized than they would
otherwise be. The assignment is
purposefully open-ended.
Appropriate topics for reaction pages may be suggested, but most often,
you will be left to select for yourself an interesting topic that relates to
the readings in some way.
Once
again, space should be considered a scarce resource. You should try to be refine your thoughts such that they can
be concisely expressed on a single page.
The most successful reaction pages focus on a single topic. Resist the temptation to write a few
sentences each on four topics.
What
are appropriate topics for reaction pages? You may develop an experiment that is inspired by one of the
readings. Describe the experiment
briefly, explain how it bears on relevant theories, and make predictions on the
results. You may disagree with a
particular claim. Explain why the
claim is wrong, and why it is important that it is wrong. You may agree with a claim. Describe extensions to the claim,
possible applications, formal models that capture the essence of the claim, or
future directions for research.
You may have nothing to say about a particular article. If so, explain why the article is not
relevant to fundamental issues of concept learning or representation. Discuss the assumptions of the article,
and why you find them inappropriate.
Generally speaking, organizing your reaction page around a claim rather
than a question stimulates more interest.
Grading
Grades
will be based on the quality of reaction pages, seminar leading, and seminar
participation. To get a good
participation evaluation, it is not necessary to make many comments. Rare but thoughtful comments
suffice. Here is the breakdown of
the requirements for different grades:
A:
Hands in acceptable or outstanding reactions for 11 out of 13 weeks. Good discussion leading and
participation
B:
hands in acceptable reactions for 9-10 out of 13 weeks. Good discussion leading and
participation.
C:
hands in acceptable reactions for 7-8 weeks.
Weekly readings
Papers within a week are listed in the order you
should read them. Readings in
bold are required, the others are
optional.
Week of
9/1: Introductions, overview of readings, class policies (Rob Goldstone)
No required reading, but see optional readings below
Optional readings:
Komatsu, L. K. (1992). Recent views of conceptual structure. Psychological Bulletin, 112,
500-526.
Markman,
A. B., & Gentner, D. (2001).
Thinking. Annual Review of
Psychology, 52, 223-247.
Week of 9/8: Exemplar Models of Categorization (Ji
Son)
Estes,
W. K. (1994). Classification and
Context. New York: Oxford
University Press. Chapters 1 and 2
Optional readings:
Hintzman, D. L. (1986). Schema abstraction in a
multiple-trace memory model. Psychological Review, 93 (4), 411Ð428.
Lamberts, K. (1998). The time course of categorization.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 24,
695Ð711.
Medin, D. L.,
& Schaffer, M. M. (1978).
A context theory of classification learning. Psychological Review, 85, 207-238.
Shepard, R. N. (1987). Toward a universal law of
generalization for psychological science. Science, 237,
1317-1323.
Week of 9/15: Neural Network Models of Concept
Learning (Michael Roberts)
Optional readings:
Kohonen, T. (2001). Self-Organizing Maps, Springer
Series in Information Sciences, Vol. 30, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New
York, ISBN 3-540-67921-9.
Kruschke, J. K. (1993). Human category learning:
Implications for back propagation models. Connection Science, 5, 3 36.
Week 9/22: Rule-based Categories (Justin Kantner)
Optional Reading:
Anderson, J. R., & Betz, J. (2001). A hybrid model
of categorization. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 8, 629Ð647.
Medin, D. L., Wattenmaker, W. D., & Michalski, R.
S. (1987). Constraints and
preferences in inductive learning: An experimental study of human and machine
performance. Cognitive Science, 11, 299-339.
Smith, E. E., & Sloman, S. A. (1994). Similarity-
versus rule-based categorization. Memory and Cognition, 22, 377Ð386.
Week of 9/29: ÒTheoryÓ Theory of Concepts (Coreen
Farris & Aaron Loehrlein)
Murphy,
G. L. (2002). The big book of
concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press. (Chapter 6, pp. 141-197).
Optional reading:
Gopnik, A., & Wellman, H. M. (1994). The
"theory theory". In L. Hirschfeld & S. Gelman (Eds.), Mapping the
mind: Domain specificity in culture and cognition. (pp. 257-293). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Heit, E. (1998). Influences of prior knowledge on
selective weighting of category members. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24, 712-731.
Heit, E., & Bott, L. (2000). Knowledge selection in
category learning. In D. L. Medin (Eds.), The Psychology of Learning and
Motivation. (pp. 163-199). Academic Press.
Week of 10/6: Perceptually Grounded Concepts (Janet
Aisbett)
Harnad,
Stevan (1990) The Symbol Grounding Problem. Physica D 42:335-346.
Optional readings:
Boroditsky, L, & Ramscar, M. (2002). The roles of body and mind in abstract
thought. Psychological Science,
13, 185-190.
Rodney A. Brooks (1991). Intelligence without
representation, Artificial Intelligence, Volume 47, Issues 1-3, January 1991,
Pages 139-159.
Week of 10/13: Conceptual Webs (Greg Gibbon)
Optional reading:
Goldstone,
R. L. (1996). Isolated and Interrelated Concepts. Memory & Cognition, 24,
608-628
Lenat, D. B., & Feigenbaum, E. A. (1991). On the thresholds of knowledge, Artificial
Intelligence, 47, 185-250.
Conceptual
Graphs (see also John
SowaÕs web page)
Sowa, J. F. (2000). Knowledge Representation:
Logical, Philosophical, and Computational Foundations, Brooks Cole Publishing Co.
Week of 10/20: Conceptual Development (Adam Sheya
& Rima Hanania)
Required readings:
Optional Readings:
Baillargeon, R. (1993). The Object Concept Revisited:
New Directions in the Investigation of Infants' Physical Knowledge. In C.
Granrund, ed.,Visual Perception and Cognition in Infancy. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gelman, S. A., Coley, J. D., & Gottfried, G. M.
(1994). Essentialist beliefs in children: The acquisition of concepts and
theories. In L. A. Hirschfeld & S. A. Gelman (Eds.), Mapping the mind. (pp.
341-367). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Gelman, S. A., & Markman, E. M. (1986). Categories
and induction in young children. Cognition, 23, 183Ð209.
Gelman,
S, & Wellman, H. M. Insides
and essences: Early understandings of the non-obvious.
Gopnik, A., & Meltzoff, A. (1997). Words,
Thoughts, and Theories. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Imai, M., Gentner, D., & Uchida, N. (1994).
Children's theories of word meaning: The role of shape similarity in early
acquisition. Cognitive Development, 9, 45-75.
Jones, S.S., Smith, L.B., Landau, B. (1991). Object
properties and knowledge in early lexical learning. Child Development,
62, 499-516.
Keil, F.C. (1989). Concepts, Kinds and Development. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/MIT Press
Keil, F.C., & Batterman, N. (1984). A
characteristic-to-defining shift in the development of word meaning. Journal
of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 221-236.
Landau, B., Smith, L.B., & Jones, S.S. (1988). The
importance of shape in early lexical learning. Cognitive Development, 3,
229-321.
Landau, B., Smith, L.B., & Jones, S.S. (1992).
Syntactic context and the shape bias in children's and adult's lexical learning.
Journal of Memory and Language, 31, 807-825.
Mandler, J.B., Bauer, P.J., & McDonough, L. (1991).
Separating the sheep from the goats: differentiating global categories. Cognitive
Psychology, 23, 263Ð298.
Markman, E.M. (1989). Categorization and naming in
children: Problems of induction.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Soja, N.N., Carey, S., & Spelke, E.S. (1991).
Ontological categories guide young children's inductions of word meaning:
Object terms and substance terms. Cognition, 38, 179-211
Wellman, H. M., & Gelman, S. A. (1992). Cognitive
development: Foundational theories of core domains. Annual Review of
Psychology, 43, 337-375.
Xu, F., & Carey, S. (1996). Infants' Metaphysics:
The Case of Numerical Identity. Cognitive Psychology, 30, 111-53.
Week 10/27: Categorization, Perceptual Learning, and
Expertise (Chuck Lindsey)
Required readings:
Tanaka, J., & Taylor, M. (1991). Object categories
and expertise : is the basic level in the eye of the beholder? Cognitive
Psychology, 23, 457-482.
Optimal readings:
Chi, M. T. H., Feltovich, P. J., & Glaser, R.
(1981). Categorization and representation of physics problems by experts and
novices. Cognitive Science, 5, 121-152.
Diamond, R., & Carey, S. (1986). Why faces are and
are not of Experimental Psychology: General, 115, 107-117.
Tanaka, J.W., & Taylor, M. (1991). Object
categories and expertise: Is the basic level in the eye of the beholder?
Cognitive Psychology, 23, 457-482.
Week 11/3: Natural Kinds and artifacts (Cynthia
Drake)
Required Readings:
Optional Readings:
Bloom, P. (1996). Intention, history, and artifact
concepts. Cognition, 60, 1-29
Quine, W. V. (1977). Natural Kinds.
in S. Schwartz (Ed.) Naming,
Necessity, and Natural Kinds.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (pp 155-175).
Malt, B.C. (1994). Water is not H2O. Cognitive
Psychology, 27, 41-70.
Malt, B. C., & Johnson, E. J. (1992). Do artifact
concepts have cores? Journal of Memory and Language, 31, 195Ð217.
Medin, D. L., & Ortony, A. (1989). Psychological
essentialism. In S. Vosniadou & A. Ortony (Eds.), Similarity and
analogical reasoning. (pp. 179-196). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University
Press.
Week 11/10: Cultural Perspectives on Concepts (Aaron
Loehrlein)
Optional readings:
Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the
Evolutionary Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Choi, I., Nisbett, R.E., & Smith, E.E. (1997).
Culture, category salience, and inductive reasoning. Cognition, 65, 15-32.
Coley, J.D., Medin, D.L., & Atran, S. (1997). Does
rank have its privilege? Inductive inferences within folkbiological taxonomies.
Cognition, 64, 73-112.
Week of 11/17: Concepts and Word Meaning (Amy Scott)
Murphy,
G. L. (2002). The big book of
concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press. Chapter 11, (pp. 385-441).
Optional readings:
Gelman, S. A., & Heyman, G. D. (1999).
Carrot-eaters and creature believers: The effects of lexicalization on
childrenÕs inferences about social categories. Psychological Science, 10, 489Ð493.
Week 11/24: Thanksgiving
Week 12/1: Language and Conceptualization (David
Landy & Shakila Shayan)
Optional readings:
Gentner, D., & Boroditsky, L. (2000). Individuation,
relativity, and early word learning. In M. Bowerman & S. Levinson (Eds.), Language
acquisition and conceptual development
(pp. 215Ð256). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Imai, M., & Gentner, D. (1997). A cross-linguistic
study of early word meaning: universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition, 62, 169Ð200.
Levinson, S. C. (1997). Language and cognition: The cognitive consequences of
spatial description in Guugu Yimithirr.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 7, 98-131.
Levinson, S. C. (in press). Space in language and cognition: Explorations in
cognitive diversity.
Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Lucy, J. (1992).
Grammatical categories and cognition: A case study of the linguistic
relativity hypothesis. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Malt, B. C. (1995). Category coherence in
cross-cultural perspective. Cognitive Psychology, 29, 85-148.
Malt, B. C., Sloman, S. A., Gennari, S., Shi, M., &
Wang, Y. (1999). Knowing versus naming: Similarity of the linguistic
categorization of artifacts. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 230Ð262.
Medin, D. L., Lynch, E. B., Coley, J. D., & Atran,
S. (1997). Categorization and reasoning among tree experts: Do all roads lead
to Rome? Cognitive Psychology, 32, 49Ð96.
Slobin, D. I. (2003). Language and thought online: Cognitive consequences of
linguistic relativity. In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.) Language in mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (pp. 157-191)
Whorf, B.L. (1956). The relation of habitual thought
and behavior to language. In J.B. Carroll (Ed.), Language, thought, and
reality: Essays by B.L. Whorf (pp. 35-270). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Wolff, P., Medin, D. L., & Pankratz, C.
(1999). Evolution and devolution
of folkbiological knowledge. Cognition,
73, 177-204
Week of 12/8: Representation-building During Concept
Learning (Damien Sullivan)
Optional readings:
Schank, R. C., Collins, G. C., & Hunter, L. E.
(1986). Transcending inductive category formation in learning. Behavioral and
Brain Sciences, 9, 639-686.
Additional topics not
covered
Bayesian models of Categorization
Ross, B. H., & Murphy, G. L. (1996).
Category-based predictions: Influence of uncertainty and feature associations. Journal
of Expeirmental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 22,
736-753.
Similarity and Categorization
Bassok, M., & Medin, D. L. (1997). Birds of a
feather flock together: Similarity judgments with semantically rich
stimuli. Journal of Memory
& Language, 36, 311-336.
Edelman, S. (1999). Representation and recognition in vision. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gardenfors, P. (2000). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gentner, D., & Rattermann, M. J. (1991). Language and the career of
similarity. In S. A. Gelman &
J. P. Byrnes, (Eds.), Perspectives on language and thought interrelations in
development (pp. 225-277).
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Hahn, U. (2003).
Similarity. In L. Nadel
(Ed.) Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. London: Macmillan.