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Psychology Dictionary >> Prototype Theory
Prototype Theory
Prototype theory refers to the claim that mental categories are represented by means of a single 'best example', or prototype, identifying the 'center' of the category.
In this view, decisions about category membership, and inferences about the category, are made with reference to this best example, often and 'average' of the examples of that category that one has actually encountered.
A prototype model claims that your concept of a category is a prototype - an ideal member of the category, or a very typical member of the category, or the list of the properties that category members have.
Prototype models have trouble explaining how your categorization decisions are affected by variability among members of a category.
E.g. you know that a 2-inch-diameter piece of metal is NOT a quarter because there is essentially no variability in size of quarters.
Prototype models also have trouble explaining how your categorization decisions are affected by covariability among properties in a category.
E.g., you can view small singing birds and large non-singing birds as typical, but a large singing bird is odd.
Exemplar models, however, can explain these facts well because you can examine your memories of category members to see how they vary and covary.
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