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Principled and statistical connections in common sense conception.
Sandeep Prasada1, Elaine M Dillingham
1Department of Psychology, Hunter College, CUNY, North Bldg, New York, NY 10021, USA. sprasada@hunter.cuny.edu
Cognition
|January 31, 2006
Summary
We form principled connections between a thing's type and its essential properties, distinct from statistical links. This reveals a formal mode of understanding in conceptual knowledge.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Nominal concepts link tokens to types.
- Understanding the nature of these conceptual relations is key.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the relations between conceptual types and their properties.
- Differentiate principled connections from other relation types.
Main Methods:
- Six experiments were conducted.
- Examined connections between conceptual types (e.g., DOG) and properties (k-properties vs. t-properties).
Main Results:
- Evidence supports principled connections for essential (k-) properties, not incidental (t-) properties.
- Principled connections differ from logical, statistical, and causal links.
- Distinguished principled connections from strong statistical associations.
Conclusions:
- Principled connections are fundamental to conceptual knowledge structure.
- They represent a formal mode of understanding and explanation.
- Kind representations are defined by principled connections to k-properties.