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Introduction: Categorization involves grouping information to make inferences and support novel decisions. In the laboratory, category learning tasks commonly involve trial-and-error where participants are instructed to classify stimuli and learn through feedback. Here, we tested across two experiments whether people can acquire category knowledge in an incidental manner by associating category members with other information that itself is structured, and how it compares to acquiring category knowledge directly through feedback-based classification training. Methods: Subjects were trained to remember specific associations consisting of cartoon animals paired with animal-specific background scenes. Animals presented on forest vs.mountain scenes weremembers of two prototype-based categories, but this was not conveyed to the participants. Spontaneous category learning was tested by asking participants to guess habitat (mountains, forests) for old and new cartoon animals without feedback. Results: We found that participants spontaneously acquired category knowledge, showing high categorization accuracy for new animals, comparable to a group that underwent a traditional feedback-based classification training with the same stimuli. Strategy analysis showed that themajority of participants in both groups abstracted the central tendency of the categories, albeit a somewhat larger proportion of subjects relied on memory for specific training exemplars after paired-associate learning. Partial evidence was found for the hypothesis that generalized knowledge emerged at the expense of memory for specific animal-scene associations. Discussion: The findings show that despite the goal to remember specific information that required differentiation of stimuli within categories, subjects can spontaneously acquire category knowledge, generalizable to novel stimuli in a way comparable to traditional supervised classification training. This work provides new insights into how category learning can proceed under more naturalistic demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What type of conceptual information about an object do we get at a brief glance? In two experiments, we investigated the nature of conceptual tokening—the moment at which conceptual information about an object is accessed. Using a masked picture‐word congruency task with dichoptic presentations at "brief" (50−60 ms) and "long" (190−200 ms) durations, participants judged the relation between a picture (e.g., a banana) and a word representing one of four property types about the object: superordinate (fruit), basic level (banana), a high‐salient (yellow), or low‐salient feature (peel). In Experiment 1, stimuli were presented in black‐and‐white; in Experiment 2, they were presented in red and blue, with participants wearing red‐blue anaglyph glasses. This manipulation allowed for the independent projection of stimuli to the left‐ and right‐hemisphere visual areas, aiming to probe the early effects of these projections in conceptual tokening. Results showed that superordinate and basic‐level properties elicited faster and more accurate responses than high‐ and low‐salient features at both presentation times. This advantage persisted even when the objects were divided into categories (e.g., animals, vegetables, vehicles, tools), and when objects contained high‐salient visual features. However, contrasts between categories show that animals, fruits, and vegetables tend to be categorized at the superordinate level, while vehicles tend to be categorized at the basic level. Also, for a restricted class of objects, high‐salient features representing diagnostic color information (yellow for the picture of a banana) facilitated congruency judgments to the same extent as that of superordinate and basic‐level labels. We suggest that early access to object concepts yields superordinate and basic‐level information, with features only yielding effects at a later stage of processing, unless they represent diagnostic color information. We discuss these results advancing a unified theory of conceptual representation, integrating key postulates of atomism and feature‐based theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The ways in which words are used to describe and discuss people with disabilities has long been an area of social concern. Previous research has demonstrated that language can overtly and subtly influence cognitions and perceptions of individuals, but there is less research on how language relates to perceptions of individuals with disabilities. Materials and methods: A content analysis of 236 peer-reviewed articles was performed to explore differences in the frequency of the use of "disability," "disorder," and "illness" in academic articles related to eight common conditions: deafness, blindness, multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and addiction. Results: Results indicated that there were differences in how disability language was used by academic writers. Specifically, "disability" appeared in the writing more frequently in articles related to physical disabilities, "disorder" appeared most frequently in articles related to anxiety and depression, and "illness" appeared most frequently in articles related to schizophrenia. Conclusions: This observed difference in frequency use could reflect differences in the context and meaning of the use of these conditions. Suggestions for future research are discussed. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: The way individuals write and talk about conditions may indicate the way they think about the conditions. When compared to articles written about physical conditions, the term "disability" is used less by academic writers than when discussing mental conditions. This suggests that academic writers may view mental conditions as less "prototypical" disabilities (compared to physical conditions). Careful consideration should be given to the language used when discussing all types of disabilities. When writers, media professionals, policymakers, and the public are educated on the diverse range of conditions and the unique challenges they present to individuals, only then can rehabilitation be truly comprehensive and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this article, we analyse and discuss translation professionals' views on the concepts of their trade: the concept of translation itself but also adjacent notions such as subtitling, interpreting, localisation and transcreation. Through focus groups with translators and translation project managers working for a translation agency, we explore how practitioners understand the concepts of translation, how they categorise and why they categorise as they do. Data were analysed by means of prototype theory, and results show that the focus-group participants understand prototypical translation rather narrowly as source-text oriented, written, interlingual transfer, but also that they have a broad and nuanced understanding of translation as a category. Beyond the prototype, they use 'translation' as a cover term for a wide variety of tasks that involve different degrees of intervention, transformation and creativity. Interestingly, the analyses show that the practitioners in the study categorise quite differently than translation scholars do. They draw on a fluctuating set of criteria for categorisation, some of which are highly pragmatic (e.g. pricing), and their definitions are much more floating and context-sensitive. In fact, they operate with different concepts depending on whom they interact with: clients, colleagues – or scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jiaoyu Kexue Wenxian is the property of Educational Science Literature (Chinese) Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

IntroductionCategorization involves grouping information to make inferences and support novel decisions. In the laboratory, category learning tasks commonly involve trial-and-error where participants are instructed to classify stimuli and learn through feedback. Here, we tested across two experiments whether people can acquire category knowledge in an incidental manner by associating category members with other information that itself is structured, and how it compares to acquiring category knowledge directly through feedback-based classification training.MethodsSubjects were trained to remember specific associations consisting of cartoon animals paired with animal-specific background scenes. Animals presented on forest vs. mountain scenes were members of two prototype-based categories, but this was not conveyed to the participants. Spontaneous category learning was tested by asking participants to guess habitat (mountains, forests) for old and new cartoon animals without feedback.ResultsWe found that participants spontaneously acquired category knowledge, showing high categorization accuracy for new animals, comparable to a group that underwent a traditional feedback-based classification training with the same stimuli. Strategy analysis showed that the majority of participants in both groups abstracted the central tendency of the categories, albeit a somewhat larger proportion of subjects relied on memory for specific training exemplars after paired-associate learning. Partial evidence was found for the hypothesis that generalized knowledge emerged at the expense of memory for specific animal-scene associations.DiscussionThe findings show that despite the goal to remember specific information that required differentiation of stimuli within categories, subjects can spontaneously acquire category knowledge, generalizable to novel stimuli in a way comparable to traditional supervised classification training. This work provides new insights into how category learning can proceed under more naturalistic demands.

Prototype theory, which argues that categories have graded (and thus fuzzy) membership based on prototypes, has been used as cognitive evidence to support moral particularism because if categories (in moral rules) only have fuzzy conceptual boundaries, moral rules are not enough for moral judgment, as specific situations also need to be considered to determine how these fuzzy categories should be understood, which is what moral particularism believes. The importance of literature for ethics, especially for moral imagination, has also been extensively discussed because literature can provide vivid examples for us to imagine different moral dilemmas, the consequences of different moral choices, and the feelings of different people facing different situations. Martha Nussbaum specifically argues that the literary form is the only adequate form to imagine certain complex moral situations. By analyzing concrete literary examples as well as the related ethical discussions and empirical findings, this article argues that, building on Nussbaum's argument, prototype theory can serve as a cognitive basis for the importance of literary form for moral imagination, because the literary form's tolerance of ambiguity suits how we ambiguously categorize the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In four experiments and a meta-analysis, the present research examined how the sexual orientation of a victim affected the perceived legitimacy of sexual harassment claims. Working from prototype theory, the researchers hypothesized that because lesbian women deviate from the prototype of a sexual harassment victim, people would be less likely to perceive sexual harassment claims as legitimate when the victim was a lesbian woman as compared to a heterosexual woman. Although Experiment 1 yielded results congruent with the hypothesis, Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 did not. A meta-analysis conducted to assess effects of sexual orientation across all studies was not significant (g = −.06, z = −1.20, p = .23). The impact of victim prototypicality on perceptions of sexual harassment claims is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to study the preposition /az/ (i.e., from) in primary school textbooks. Polysemy of prepositions is one of the sources of many students' faception. A text corpus developed for this study from Farsi, Practical Science, Heavenly Gifts, and Social Studies of elementary school textbooks grades 1 to 6. To analyze the data, Rosch's (1975) prototype theory and Tyler and Evans' (2003) systematic prepositions polysemy approaches in the cognitive semantics framework were used. At first, the sample sentences which contained the preposition /az/ (from) were extracted to form the sub-corpus. The set of senses that are obtained from the sub-corpus are "Type", "Whole Part", "Tense, Source", "Comparation", "with the help of, By, With", "About", "Orientation", "Motion", "Metaphor", and "Complement". Statistical distribution of meanings in the whole sub-corpus (general domain) was "Whole Part". The senses of the proposition among lessons and grades (domain restricted) are not similar to the prototype sense. This research showed that the sense "Complement" is the prototype for grades 1 to 3, and the sense "Whole Part" is more frequent in grade 4 to 6. Different forms of this preposition are used at the beginning, middle, and end of sentence. Furthermore, the findings showed that the sense "Metaphor" is the prototype for the book Farsi, the sense "Whole Part" is the prototype sense for Practical Science and Social Studies, and the sense "Tense" is the prototype sense for Heavenly Gifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a model of an architecture of an artificial cognitive agent that performs the function of generating autoepistemic membership statements used to communicate beliefs about the belonging of an observed external object to a category with a prototype. The meaning of statements is described within the model by means of cognitive semantics. The presented proposal builds upon a pre-existing architecture and a semantic model designed for a simpler case of categories without a prototype. The main conclusion is that it is possible to develop an interactive cognitive agent capable of learning about categories with prototypes and producing autoepistemic membership statements fulfilling requirements of Rosch's standard version of prototype semantics and satisfying pragmatic and logical rules for generating equivalents of these statements in natural languages. Detailed results include the following: an original proposal for an agent's architecture, a model of an agent's strategy of learning categories with a prototype, a scheme for determining the computational complexity of particular implementations of the learning strategy, definitions of cognitive semantics for particular cases of autoepistemic membership statements, and an analytical verification of properties of the proposed cognitive semantics. Finally, this article discusses the directions of further development and potential variants of the proposed architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lects constitute prototype categories (Gitte Kristiansen 2003). This implies that central/prototypical speakers are more easily identified as members of a specific lect (Kristiansen et al. 2018). The prototypicality of elements within natural categories have generally been measured through direct questions, indirect questions, or reaction time. Nonetheless, abstract categories (e.g., foreign accents) may be difficult to examine via questions. Following previous research that analyzed the use of the Levenshtein Distance (LD) (Vladimir I. Levenshtein 1965) to predict foreign-accentedness (Martijn Benjamin Wieling et al. 2014) or the intelligibility of foreign accents (Jurado-Bravo 2021), this study explores the use of LD as a predictor of prototypicality of Spanish-accented English. The LD between 50 Spanish speakers of English and different prototype benchmarks were calculated. These recordings were used as speech stimuli in an accent identification test. Reaction time measures were collected and correlated to the calculated LD. Results suggest that the LD to the stereotypical prototype can partly predict the prototypicality of Spanish-accented English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study’s purpose was to analyse the influence of neutralisation on the perception of European Portuguese (EP) close-mid and open-mid vowels, and the gradient between the /i/, /e/, /ε/ and /a/ phonological categories. A fuzzy boundary between mid-vowels has been described in the phonological systems of various languages including EP, a variety of Portuguese with complex phonological phenomena and exceptional realisations of vowels in different contexts. Fifteen listeners from Lisbon participated in two tasks: Identification and goodness rating of 20 random repetitions of 31 stimuli from a /i/-/e/-/ε/-/a/ continuum. The boundaries between categories in the identification task, the internal structures of each category and the gradient of each boundary in the goodness rating task were analysed. Logistic regression was used to analyse the individual responses of listeners and the internal structure of phonemic categories, and prototypes were determined using bubble charts of goodness scores. The gradient of boundaries was analysed using two sets of data: X responses and goodness ratings. Models of the gradients of transition were developed using a mixed effects regression approach. Results from the identification task showed four vowel categories marked by three distinct boundaries. The stimulus with the highest score was approximately in the centroid and the goodness score decreased as the stimulus moved away from the centroid, which constitutes new evidence of an internal structure of the phonemic categories in EP. The main implications of the results obtained are for the description and typology of phonological phenomena in EP, supporting the existence of a non-partial contrast (which does not neutralise in any context) between /ε/ and /a/, and revealing less robust /i/-/e/ and /e/-/ε/ phonemic oppositions.

Dehumanization has figured prominently in intergroup discrimination and violence, which has inspired sustained social-psychological inquiry. Over two decades, researchers have brought an abundance of theories and methods to bear on the empirical study of dehumanization. Collectively, this work has painted an expansive portrait of the many ways we can overlook or deny the humanity of others. At the same time, these diverse conceptual and measurement approaches have progressed in relative isolation, which has created confusion about what, precisely, is meant by “dehumanization” and cast uncertainty on fundamental conclusions drawn from this research. To stimulate theoretical development and more-productive exchanges across the field, we offer a Family-Resemblances perspective on dehumanization research. Specifically, we conceptualize dehumanization as a multifaceted construct that encompasses a family of related processes with both overlapping and unique features. Thus, the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to studying dehumanization are complementary means of capturing a fundamentally heterogeneous phenomenon. Further, we argue that this perspective can catalyze a more nuanced and precise understanding of dehumanization's many facets: by specifying the different varieties of dehumanization under investigation, the field can more precisely map them onto specific targets, causes, consequences, and intervention strategies.

This paper aims to reveal differences between the competing accusative and locative forms of Lithuanian temporal expressions denoting parts of the day (rytas ‘morning’, diena ‘day’, vakaras ‘evening’, naktis ‘night’). Since the accusative of time expresses a wider semantic spectrum, it was first necessary, using a prototypical approach, to define exactly what the morphosyntactic and semantic characteristics of the competing pairs are (i.e., prototypical verbal modifiers expressing location of an action/ state in time). Then, analysing the DLKT corpus data confirmed that the competition between the accusative and locative forms is present using the word vakaras ‘evening’ and rytas ‘morning’. This study reveals that the choice of case depends on the interaction of the given word with the (non)presence of an attribute and on the concrete type of attribute as well. It was confirmed that the accusatives of all the studied words predominate over the locatives, but the strength of the dominance varies. This may be caused by the different degree of adverbialization of the locative forms and by the different semantic implications embodied in the lexemes themselves, which is related to how successfully the locative resists the expansion of the accusative.

The organization of medical knowledge is reflected in language and can be studied from the viewpoints of semantics and prototype theory. The purpose of this study is to analyze student verbalizations during an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and correlate them with test scores and final medical degree (MD) scores. We hypothesize that students whose verbalizations are semantically richer and closer to the disease prototype will show better academic performance. We conducted a single-center study during a year 6 (Y6) high-stakes OSCE where one probing intervention was included at the end of the exam to capture students' reasoning about one of the clinical cases. Verbalizations were transcribed and coded. An assessment panel categorized verbalizations regarding their semantic value (Weak, Good, Strong). Semantic categories and prototypical elements were compared with OSCE, case-based exam and global MD scores. Students with Semantic 'Strong' verbalizations displayed higher OSCE, case-based exam and MD scores, while the use of prototypical elements was associated with higher OSCE and MD scores. Semantic competence and verbalizations matching the disease prototype may identify students with better organization of medical knowledge. This work provides empirical groundwork for future research on language analysis to support assessment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the semantic and lexical extensions of the term for 'black' in Hindi by analyzing idiomatic expressions, compound words and culturally grounded metaphorical expressions from a cultural-cognitive perspective. The most commonly used Hindi term for black is kaala. The paper presents an analysis of 42 expressions with the term kaala (or its other morphological variants) in Hindi including idioms and compounds. The analysis finds that the color term extends to several experiential domains from emotions to morality and politics, usually signifying a negative aspect, but in some cases also a protection from negativity. It is found to be deep-rooted in Hindu mythology and grounds many a cultural belief. Several underlying metaphors are brought up by this analysis, many of which seem to be universal across languages, such as bad is black. But some metaphorical conceptualizations are found to be culture-specific, for instance the use of something black, like kaala tiika (black mark on the forehead or cheek), to counter the evil, and a goddess called kaali, said to have lethal powers. The analysis shows that the embodiment of human experience through the color 'black' has a substantial universal basis but at the same time, culture can lead to unique conceptualizations, as is the case with kaala. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to clarify fundamental aspects of the process of assigning fuzzy scores to conditions based on family resemblance (FR) structures by considering prototype and set theories. Prototype theory and set theory consider FR structures from two different angles. Specifically, set theory links the conceptualization of FR to the idea of sufficient and INUS (Insufficient but Necessary part of a condition, which is itself Unnecessary but Sufficient for the result) sets. In contrast, concept membership in prototype theory is strictly linked to the notion of similarity (or resemblance) in relation to the prototype, which is the anchor of the ideational content of the concept. After an introductive section where I elucidate set-theoretic and prototypical aspects of concept formation, I individuate the axiomatic properties that identify the principles of transforming FR structures into fuzzy sets. Finally, I propose an algorithm based on the power mean that is able to operationalize FR structures considering both set-theoretic and prototype theory perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article probes the usefulness of the notion of basic level categorisation for legal theory. Basic level categorisation is the central part of the vertical dimension of Eleanor Rosch's prototype theory. It addresses the question about the various levels of abstraction at which humans can categorise the world. Extensive anthropological, psychological and linguistic research has proven that there is a preferable level of abstraction, namely the basic level, at which primary categorical cuts of the perceived world are made. Three areas of legal theory are identified when applying these findings. The first is the area of visualisation of legal rules. The notion of basic level categories addresses some of the known problems of discrepancies between the visualisation of a rule and its verbal description. The second is the area of statutory interpretation. Many famous cases of interpretive doubts are resolved around superordinate categories in statutory language. Categories of this level of abstraction are less contrastive than basic level categories, thus resulting in more potential for borderline cases and more reliance on functional methods in their classification. The third is the area of legislative drafting. The way in which the law categorises the world often invalidates two principles of categorisation identified by Rosch, namely cognitive economy and perceived world structure. In order to successfully enhance the comprehensibility of legal texts, it is necessary to go beyond the purely linguistic level and address the problem of legal categorisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lexikos is the property of Bureau of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to reveal differences between the competing accusative and locative forms of Lithuanian temporal expressions denoting parts of the day (rytas ‘morning’, diena ‘day’, vakaras ‘evening’, naktis ‘night’). Since the accusative of time expresses a wider semantic spectrum, it was first necessary, using a prototypical approach, to define exactly what the morphosyntactic and semantic characteristics of the competing pairs are (i.e., prototypical verbal modifiers expressing location of an action/ state in time). Then, analysing the DLKT corpus data confirmed that the competition between the accusative and locative forms is present using the word vakaras ‘evening’ and rytas ‘morning’. This study reveals that the choice of case depends on the interaction of the given word with the (non)presence of an attribute and on the concrete type of attribute as well. It was confirmed that the accusatives of all the studied words predominate over the locatives, but the strength of the dominance varies. This may be caused by the different degree of adverbialization of the locative forms and by the different semantic implications embodied in the lexemes themselves, which is related to how successfully the locative resists the expansion of the accusative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with some of the key topics in cognitive linguistics--categorization and prototype theory. Attitudes towards these concepts have evolved from an understanding of categories in the ancient times as strictly organized entities (categories are defined as a set of necessary and sufficient characteristics; the features of category members are binary; categories have clear boundaries; all category members have equal status), to a cognitive understanding of categories, influenced primarily by the research of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Eleanor Rosch. Relying on the theoretical assumptions of research in cognitive linguistics, we conducted a study of domestic animal categories at the levels of phraseology, nomination and association. The results of this study show that the prototypical member of the category DOMESTIC ANIMALS is the dog. This category is superordinate to the categories LIVESTOCK, POULTRY and PETS. The prototypical member of the category LIVESTOCK is the domestic animal cow. On the periphery of this category are the goat, the sheep, the horse, the donkey and the pig. The most recognizable typical member of the category POULTRY is the chicken. Less recognizable members include the goose, the turkey, the duck, the rooster and the rabbit. This study confirms the cognitive linguistic view of categories. The prototypical members of the category DOMESTIC ANIMAL have changed over time from the cow and the horse to the contemporary view of the dog as the most prominent member of the category. Some members of these categories are increasingly less recognized as members of the respective categories, while new members appear only as part of the contemporary image of the world of Vojvodina Ruthenians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Etnolingwistyka is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Linguistica Asiatica is the property of Acta Linguistica Asiatica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: In the transferring process from the modern society to the post-modern society, information is transmitted via We Media, in which the maps that are made by public users and map enthusiasts is not at high accuracy, and the expressions of the maps are diversified. WeMap is a kind of public-made maps, aiming to improve the map expressions to avoid the problems generated due to the lack of spatial cognitive knowledge, and to focus on the expressions of the map users subjective information. Unlike the traditional maps, WeMap aims to express geographical features and phenomena from multiple per‐ spectives and dimensions. This paper examine the origins of the above characteristics from the postmodern philosophy perspective. Methods: Metaphoring maps and language, taking postmodern philosophical methodologies such as embodied cognitive view, prototype category theory and decentralism of cognitive linguistics as tools, this paper critically analyzes and reconstructs the fundamental problems including spatial cognition, information classification and cartographic expression of traditional maps, and forms the conceptual framework of WeMap with the characteristics of postmodern philosophy. Results: WeMap cognitive process model was proposed, consisting of two processes: Map making process which can be summarized as mental image-image schema-prototype category-geographic knowledge-WeMap, and the map reading process which can be described as visual representation-visual feature-semantic and spatial relationship-cognitive map-spatial analysis-spatial behavior. The cognitive hierarchy model of WeMaps may be classified into six levels ( from IS1 to IS6) by the image schema. IS1 is suitable for most of public users who own the basic body image schema and it corresponds to the lowest cognitive ability, while IS2, IS3, IS4, IS5 and IS6 correspond to more advanced cognition abilities. The information classification of WeMap coin‐cides with prototype category theory which can be realized according to the principle of achieving common ness with prototype and compatibility with category. WeMap advocates pluralism which embodies in fuzzy map projections, various forms of map symbols, and even the opposite generalization standards compare to traditional maps. Conclusions: WeMap is a new map form in the era of We Media whose cognitive model, classification principle and map expressions coincide with the ideas of embodied cognitive view, prototype category and decentralism of postmodern philosophy. The philosophical basis of traditional map is more inclined to metaphysical mechanical objectivism. Although it recognizes the role of human cognition in map making and use, the human here refers to map experts. Maps can only be developed under the design of map experts, which is difficult to give full play to the linguistic potential of maps. Map theories, such as adaptive maps and crowdsourcing maps, have begun to pay attention to the transformation of their philo‐sophical basis, emphasizing the transfer of the main body of cartography and map use from map experts to public users, but they are still limited by the design knowledge and ability of map experts. WeMap aims to put map experts and public users on an equal position, fully respect the individual geospatial cognitive needs and habits of each map user, the decentralization of WeMap conforms to the development trend of human post-modernist philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to account for Japanese language learners’ selection pattern of case particle wo by taking a prototype-based approach to language learning. A cross-sectional study of Persian-speaking learners was conducted to examine whether the degree of predicate transitivity influences case particle selection, and whether proficiency level and L1 play a role in such a selection pattern. The results reveal that learners were sensitive to the degree of predicate transitivity. However, the test scores were significantly higher for verbs of contact (‘throw’, ‘use’) which express object manipulation compared to those for the linguistic prototype which involves a change in the object’s state (‘cut’, ‘reduce’). This suggests that learners may consider contact verbs as the more ‘typical’ or basic transitive construction. The results also show that lower proficiency learners were more likely to select particles based on L1 surface marking, suggesting that learners’ particle selection strategy is influenced by proficiency level.

According to the so-called Classical Theory, concepts are mentally represented by individually necessary and jointly sufficient application conditions. One of the principal empirical objections against this view stems from evidence that people judge some instances of a concept to be more typical than others. In this paper we present and discuss four empirical studies that investigate the extent to which this ‘typicality effect’ holds for the concept of basic needs. Through multiple operationalizations of typicality, our studies yielded evidence for a strong effect of this kind: (1) Participants tended to recall the same core examples of the concept in a free-listing task. (2) They judged some basic needs to be more typical than others. (3) The items that were judged to be more typical were listed more frequently in the free-listing task. (4) These items were listed earlier on in the free-listing task. (5) Typical basic needs, as well as non needs, were classified faster than atypical basic needs in a reaction time study. These findings suggest that the concept of basic needs may have a non-classical (e.g., exemplar or prototype) structure. If so, the quest for a simple and robust intensional analysis of the concept may be futile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For two decades, the formalism of quantum mechanics has been successfully used to describe human decision processes, situations of heuristic reasoning, and the contextuality of concepts and their combinations. The phenomenon of 'categorical perception' has put us on track to find a possible deeper cause of the presence of this quantum structure in human cognition. Thus, we show that in an archetype of human perception consisting of the reconciliation of a bottom up stimulus with a top down cognitive expectation pattern, there arises the typical warping of categorical perception, where groups of stimuli clump together to form quanta, which move away from each other and lead to a discretization of a dimension. The individual concepts, which are these quanta, can be modeled by a quantum prototype theory with the square of the absolute value of a corresponding Schrödinger wave function as the fuzzy prototype structure, and the superposition of two such wave functions accounts for the interference pattern that occurs when these concepts are combined. Using a simple quantum measurement model, we analyze this archetype of human perception, provide an overview of the experimental evidence base for categorical perception with the phenomenon of warping leading to quantization, and illustrate our analyses with two examples worked out in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Surra Man Raa is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Studies show that artificial cognitive agents can be equipped with mechanisms for learning of basic language categories. However, after a period of initial learning performed under perfect circumstances, agents get to be deployed into dynamic real world environments leading to possibly partial observations of agent's surroundings. This paper presents a general strategy for applying categories with prototypes on incomplete observational data. It is assumed that the task is carried out by an artificial agent which has autonomously developed its private ontological knowledge base using complete observations. The agent expresses its internal uncertainty about an assignment of a category to an observed object by relying on epistemic modal operators of possibility, belief, and knowledge. An underlying theory builds upon accomplishments of a theory of grounding of feasible epistemic statements in artificial cognitive agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the forms of verbal abuse by teachers toward students during the teaching and learning process, the prototype of verbal abuse recognized by teachers, and the specific features of verbal abuse of students by teachers. This study used mixed methods that combine qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative method focused on investigating the frequency of verbal abuse by teachers using the Korean Verbal Abuse Questionnaire. Meanwhile, the qualitative method examined the prototype of verbal abuse recognized by teachers and the features of verbal abuse that teachers use toward students. This study recruited 204 students from the fourth to the sixth grades of elementary school and 30 teacher representatives from five elementary schools in Indonesia. The data were collected through online surveys and interviews. The data on the frequency of verbal abuse by teachers during the teaching and learning process were analyzed using descriptive statistics. In contrast, the data from the open-ended questionnaire for teachers and the interviews with students and teachers were analyzed using content analysis. This study found that there are four types of verbal abuse by teachers. These are raising their voices, telling students that they are acting stupid or like brats, scolding, and calling names that make students feel inadequate. Teachers tend to define abuse as something that is physically aggressive, suggesting that teachers often categorize abuse within the realm of physical violence. There are four types of verbal abuse features found in teachers’ utterances; these are labeling students’ cognitive ability, labeling students’ behaviors, shaming students’ physiques, and raising their voices. The results of this study can be employed to develop communication strategies for teachers to lessen verbal abuse during the teaching and learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is related to the teaching of key concepts in civic communication. The aim is to propose an alternative approach for defining terms such as citizen, rights, person etc., which links the previous experience of the students with these words and their lexical definition. This approach is inspired by the ideas for applying the prototype theory and the study of metaphors in foreign language teaching. The hypothesis is that such methods can be successfully applied in the teaching of civic education, so that the training is related to practice. The article includes examples from civic education textbooks for 11th grade, which provide definitions inspired by these approaches. In addition, a comparison has been made between the linguistic intuitions of the students (shared in the generalized results of a survey) and the proposed definitions in the textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nosological diagnosis is a particular type of nontheoretical diagnosis consisting of identifying the disease that afflicts the patient without explaining the underlying etiopathological mechanisms. Its origins are within the essentialist point of view on the nature of diseases, which dates back at least to 18th-century taxonomy studies. In this article, we propose a model of nosological diagnosis as a two-phase process composed of the categorization of inductive inferences and argumentations by analogy. In the inductive phase, disease entities are identified by means of typicality-based categorization processes, and meaningful clinical samples are learned (abstract clinical cases, i.e., syndromes and actual cases); in the subsequent phase, those samples are used as the bases of argumentations by analogy to obtain a diagnosis for a given patient. This model extends the prototype resemblance theory of disease including also the exemplar theory proposed in cognitive science and, moreover, it frames the clinical activity of nosological diagnosis and how it can be explained within the theory of argumentation. According to it, diagnosis based on the recognition of a typical syndrome is explained in terms of the prototype theory of categorization and the antisymmetrical argumentation by analogy, while diagnosis based on a comparison with a previous clinical case is explained by the exemplar theory of categorization and by the symmetrical argumentation by analogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Program management has emerged as a growing area of research, supported by a range of popular normative guides. However, the line between programs and projects remains far from clear. This paper contributes to this field by identifying the ten cues that are typically used to distinguish programs from projects. Prototype theory is then introduced as a way of understanding the relationship between these two socially constructed categories. The paper argues that the structure of these categories leads to a tendency to extend from dominant images to less typical category members, with implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is based on an observation that there are significant and non-arbitrary similarities between two, seemingly quite distant, theories that address the problem of linguistic categorization. One is the theory of open texture put forward by a prominent legal philosopher, Herbert L.A Hart. The other is the theory of prototypes, originated from psychological research by Eleanor Rosch and developed by cognitively-oriented linguists, most notably Charles Fillmore, George Lakoff, and Ronald Langacker. Firstly, the origins of the open texture theory are presented, including the discussion of Friedrich Waismann's and Ludwig Wittgenstein's ideas and their impact on Hart's theory. Secondly, Hart's theory of open texture is examined, based on several articles and his masterpiece: The Concept of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1961). Thirdly, a brief introduction to the prototype theory is provided, focusing on its reception in Cognitive Linguistics. Fourthly, a comparison of both theories is presented, including a sketch of a broader philosophical and historical background, as well as a detailed analysis of similarities and dissimilarities between them. The comparison results in a conclusion that, on linguistic grounds, the open texture theory can be viewed as an anticipation of prototype theory. Finally, several reservations are made in order to avoid possible confusions and some obvious objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an analysis of the semantic structures of the English verb play and the Serbian verb igrati has been carried out according to the principles of the prototype theory as well as an analysis of the lexicographic representation of these structures in Oxford Dictionary of English (in its online version) and Rečnik srpskoga jezika Matice srpske (2011) as leading representatives of the lexicographic practice of the two languages. Since it has been observed that relations among senses of each of the two verbs are not all quite obvious and clear, the aim of the analysis has been to examine mutual semantic-derivational relatedness of these senses and, simultaneously, to answer the question whether semantic structures of these verbs are polysemous and, consequently, whether displaying all senses of each of these verbs within the same dictionary entry is justified. Also, the analysis has aimed at discovering how faithfully and precisely the structure and organization of entries in the two dictionaries reflect the internal organization of the given semantic structures and mutual relatedness of their senses taking into account the results of the analysis. An inventory of senses of the two verbs has been collected on the basis of their entries in the analysed dictionaries. For each sense, its derivational path has been identified including the sense which it has been derived from as well as the mechanism employed in this semantic derivation. This analysis has revealed that there are four motivated semantic networks within the semantic structure of the verb play and three such networks in the semantic structure of the verb igrati. Each of these networks includes senses which are derived from the common basic or prototypical sense directly or indirectly and, therefore, related on the basis of the family resemblance principle. The basic senses of all the networks identified within the structure of each of the verbs are also mutually related due to the fact that they share the same prototype. Hence, the identified networks, in the case of both verbs, form a unified semantic structure, which can be regarded as polysemous. This observation leads to the conclusion that the representation of these structures in the analysed dictionaries within one entry is justified. It has also been observed that the structure and organization of the entry for the verb play in the analysed dictionary of English quite precisely reflect the internal organization of the given polysemous structure since it adequately groups senses according to their semantic-derivational relatedness within the identified motivated networks and clearly emphasizes the basic sense of each network. The faithfulness of this reflection is achieved to a great extent, though not completely. However, the structure and organization of the entry for the verb igrati in the analysed dictionary of Serbian does not match the internal organization of the given polysemous structure.

Prototype theory is a semantic theory according to which the membership of conceptual categories is based not on a list of criterial features, but rather on the similarity to the most representative member of the category. Consequently, conceptual categories may lack classical definitions and rigid boundaries. This article supports the claims, already made by other scholars working in the field, that prototype theory may greatly augment our understanding of legal (i.e. statutory, judicial) interpretation. Legal provisions are traditionally written as classical definitions, but they are rarely applied that way. Statutory concepts tend to be interpreted with a great deal of flexibility, using a wide array of extra-textual factors. This is especially true for the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has to deal with the challenges of the multilingual, supranational law of the European Union.

Prepositions are the most active words in English. Since the late 20th century, linguists have made some deep and comprehensive studies about the polysemy of prepositions. Especially, the emergency of cognitive linguistics offers a new perspective for the study of prepositions. Under the framework of cognitive linguistics, this paper will analyze the preposition "through" from six domains by means of cognitive theories, including prototype theory, image schema theory and conceptual metaphor. It is found that the prototypical meaning of "through" is its spatial meaning. And the extension of the word is achieved with the aid of source-path-goal schema and spatial metaphor from the spatial domain to non-spatial domains. Based on these findings, a conclusion is drawn that all the non-prototypical meanings of one particular preposition are derived from its prototypical meaning and the study of the prototypical meaning is of great significance to the acquisition of English preposition meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concept modeling and learning have been important research topics in artificial intelligence and knowledge discovery. This paper studies a hierarchical concept learning method that requires a small amount of data to achieve competitive performances. The method starts from a set of fuzzy prototypes called Fuzzy Semantic Cells (FSCs). As a result of FSC parameter optimization, it creates a hierarchical structure of data–prototype–concept. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in a classification problem. In particular, when faced with limited training data, our proposed method is comparable with traditional techniques in terms of robustness and generalization ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive scientists have long used distributional semantic representations of categories. The predominant approach uses distributional representations of category‐denoting nouns, such as "city" for the category city. We propose a novel scheme that represents categories as prototypes over representations of names of its members, such as "Barcelona," "Mumbai," and "Wuhan" for the category city. This name‐based representation empirically outperforms the noun‐based representation on two experiments (modeling human judgments of category relatedness and predicting category membership) with particular improvements for ambiguous nouns. We discuss the model complexity of both classes of models and argue that the name‐based model has superior explanatory potential with regard to concept acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classic categorizations, such as "human beings are animals with two feet," have obvious defections, as they are too limited to cover the wide range of instances or not rich enough to fully represent the characteristics of the type of beings. The literary prototype theory based on the classic categorization, which regards prototypes as combinations of universal properties and specific particularities, is essentialist and incapable of exploring the true value of prototypes. It is discovered by Eleanor Rosch and other scholars that the abstract attributes are not the criteria for classification of types in everyday life; rather, the most typical prototypes are often used as models to specify the members. A case in point is the robin which has most of the attributes of birds such as laying eggs, beak, wings, feathers, but other members within this category do not equally share the same attributes, with a gradience from the prototypes to the marginal ones, hence the display of richness and extensiveness. The literary prototype based on such theory can fully represent the kind of people, transcending the essentialist theory of prototype both vertically and horizontally. Rosch also divides categories into three levels. On the basic level, the category, such as a dog, is perceptively distinct. It is the base of the whole category system and the prototype of the superordinate and subordinate levels' categories. On the superordinate level, categories such as the animal have only a few common characteristics. Members of the category on the subordinate level, such as the retriever, have only a few differences. Literary prototypes are based on the basic concept of mankind in general sense, characterized by subordinate categories, such as the hero and the miser. Its richness underscores its universality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relation between pain sensitivity andthe cognitive processing of words. 130 participants evaluatedthe pain-relatedness of a total of 600 two-syllabic nouns, andsubsequently reported on their own pain sensitivity. Theresults demonstrate that pain-sensitive people (based on theirself-report) associate words more strongly with pain than lesssensitive people. In particular, concrete nouns like syringe,wound, knife, and cactus, are considered to be more painrelatedfor those who are more pain-sensitive. We discuss ourresults in the light of three theoretical frameworks – cognitivebias, prototype theory, embodied account. We argue that thelatter is best suited to explain the results of this study in thesense in which it implies the principle of body specificity,according to which different bodily characteristics lead tocorresponding differences in the way in which peopleconstruct concepts and word meanings