Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Natural and Artificial Concepts01:24

Natural and Artificial Concepts

190
In psychology, concepts can be divided into two categories: natural and artificial. Natural concepts are formed through direct or indirect experiences. For example, consider the concept of snow. If you live in a place with regular snowfall, such as Essex Junction, Vermont, you know snow through direct experiences. You’ve seen it fall, touched it, shoveled it, and played in it. You recognize its texture, appearance, and even its smell. In contrast, if you live on an island like Saint...
190
Directional Terms01:14

Directional Terms

8.7K
Directional terms are essential for describing the relative locations of different body structures. For instance, an anatomist might describe one band of tissue as "inferior to" another, or a physician might describe a tumor as "superficial to" a deeper body structure. These terms often use comparative terms in pairs to trace out the relative locations of one body part to another or descriptions of body tissues like the deeper ones from superficially present with reference to...
8.7K
What is Natural Selection?01:32

What is Natural Selection?

115.5K
Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.
115.5K
Agonism and Antagonism: Quantification01:14

Agonism and Antagonism: Quantification

403
When drugs are administered, they can elicit either an agonist or antagonist effect on the body. Agonism occurs when a drug activates a specific receptor, triggering a biological response. On the other hand, antagonism happens when a drug binds to the same receptors but blocks their activation, thereby preventing a biological response.
To quantify these effects, researchers use a dose-response curve, which provides valuable information about the potency and efficacy of a drug. Potency refers to...
403
Limits to Natural Selection01:38

Limits to Natural Selection

31.4K
Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.
31.4K
Anatomical Terminology01:20

Anatomical Terminology

12.7K
Knowledge of anatomy is essential to understand human biology and medicine. Anatomists and health care professionals use standard terminology to describe the human body with more precision and no ambiguity. Anatomical terms have mostly Greek and Latin-derived roots. Because these languages are rarely used in conversation, the meaning of words remains the same. Each term is made up of a root in between the prefixes and suffixes. The root of a term often refers to an organ, tissue, or condition,...
12.7K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The interplay of psychedelic use and meditation in shaping psychological well-being.

Consciousness and cognition·2025
Same author

Comparing psychedelic and meditation experience reports with natural language processing.

Scientific reports·2025
Same author

Autonomous semantics and syntax on-demand in neurocomputational models of language.

Cognitive neuroscience·2025
Same author

Psychedelic researchers' own experiences of psychedelic substances, their link to opinions of psychedelics, and reflections on positionality.

Psychopharmacology·2025
Same author

The Present and Future of Parallel Architectures of Language and Cognition.

Topics in cognitive science·2025
Same author

Could machine learning help to build a unified theory of cognition?

Nature·2025
Same journal

Pronoun Resolution in Turkish: The Interplay of Referential Form, Word Order, and Implicit Causality.

Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

What's in a Color?: Language, Synesthesia, and Categorical Perception.

Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Reasoning Beyond Explicit Rules: Adults' and Children's Use of Closure Principles in Novel Cases.

Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Intermediary Object States Are Activated by Sentences Describing Completed Events.

Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Large Language Models Estimate Fine-Grained Human Color-Concept Associations.

Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Computational Models of Causal Reasoning: Bayesian Accounts of Normative Violations.

Cognitive science·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language
09:27

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Published on: October 13, 2018

10.1K

Are Natural Kind Terms Ambiguous?

Jussi Haukioja1, Jeske Toorman1, Giosuè Baggio2

  • 1Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Cognitive Science
|September 5, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Natural kind terms like "water" are not ambiguous. Our study found that people rely on underlying essences, not superficial traits, to categorize substances.

Keywords:
AmbiguityCategorizationCausal theory of referenceDescriptivismExperimental semanticsNatural kind termsReference

More Related Videos

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
08:01

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Published on: October 28, 2020

5.7K
Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

11.9K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language
09:27

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Published on: October 13, 2018

10.1K
Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
08:01

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Published on: October 28, 2020

5.7K
Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

11.9K

Area of Science:

  • Philosophy of science
  • Cognitive science
  • Linguistics

Background:

  • Recent studies suggest natural kind terms, such as "water", may be ambiguous.
  • This ambiguity implies terms could refer to superficial properties or underlying essences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether natural kind terms are ambiguous.
  • To test if superficial properties or underlying essences determine kind membership.

Main Methods:

  • An online experiment involving 600 participants.
  • Participants were presented with scenarios of novel substances with differing deep structures but identical superficial properties.
  • Three question sets were used to assess kind membership judgments.

Main Results:

  • Results did not support the ambiguity view of natural kind terms.
  • Participant judgments were consistent with the essentialist view.
  • Underlying essences, not superficial traits, were the primary criterion for kind membership.

Conclusions:

  • The ambiguity view of natural kind terms is not supported by experimental evidence.
  • Essentialism, where underlying essences define natural kinds, is a more accurate model.
  • Cognitive and linguistic theories of categorization should prioritize essential properties.