What Is Prototype Theory?

Prototype theory is a model of hierarchical classification in cognitive science. In this model, some projects are more core than others in the same category. For example, when we think of the concept of furniture, chairs are often lifted more than benches.

Prototype theory was established by Eleanor Rosch and other scholars in the 1970s. Prototype theory is a kind of completely abandoning tradition

Another concept related to the prototype effect is the basic level in cognitive classification. Therefore, when people are asked "what do you sit on?", Most of the subjects will say "chairs" instead of a secondary level category such as dining chairs or an upper level category such as furniture. At the higher level, it is difficult to point out the similarity of concepts. A chair is easy to draw, but it is much harder to draw "furniture".

Rosch (1978) defines the basic level as the level with the highest degree of effective clues. Therefore, a category such as [Animal] may have its prototype item, but it will not have a cognitive visual representation. On the other hand, the basic categories under [Animal], namely [Dog], [Bird], and [Fish], are full of information content and can be easily classified in terms of gestalt and semantic features. Obviously, the semantic model based on "attribute-value" pairs cannot indicate the priority level in the category hierarchy. Functionally, the basic level category is the information category that divides the world into the maximum number. Therefore, the basic level category is

• Maximize the number of items that share attributes within the category,

• Minimize the number of items that share attributes outside the category.

However, the basic level concept still has problems that cannot be solved. For example, "dog" as a basic category is a biological species, but "bird" or "fish" is a higher-level "genus". Similarly, the concept of frequency is very close to the basic level, but it is difficult to clearly point out.

More difficult problems arise in applying prototype effects to words other than nouns. For example, verbs seem to ignore an obvious prototype: [Run] It is difficult to find the central item. ^[1]

Prototype concept with

Around us, we find instances of tall people or small elephants that combine one or more categories. This would be a problem for extension semantics. Because of the semantics of the middle word, such as red will be defined as a set of objects with this property. Obviously, when we say "a little mouse and a little elephant", the semantics of the word little in it will not be the same.

This type of merger constitutes a secondary problem for prototype theory. In situations involving adjectives (eg, tall), the question is whether the prototype of [height] should be a six-foot tall man or a four-hundred-foot skyscraper [Dirven and Taylor 1988]? The solution is to contextualize the concept of the prototype according to the condition of the object being modified. A more thorough extension, such as red wine or red hair, cannot be said to be red on the prototype, but it can be said to be the result of the color or red shift from the wine or hair on the prototype.

Other questions-for example, determining which component categories provide which characteristics? For example, "pet bird" [Hampton 97], pets provide the ingredients to settle (in cages rather than in the wild), while birds provide surface types (feathers instead of fur). ^[2]