There are specific neural circuits in the brain for certain categories. These neural circuits are innately determined based on how they helped survival.

Semantic category approach 

Living things are identified using sensory objects and artifacts by functions. This leads to the conclusion that our ability to differentiate artifacts and living things comes from our semantic memory (which has a system for distinguishing sensory attributes and another for functions).

Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis

Categories have a distributed representation which take into account many features which determine how concepts are divided up within them.

Multiple factor approach

Many animals share similar features (i.e. legs, eyes, etc). Artifacts on the other hand do not share as many (they are more variable. This has led researchers to the posit that the reason some people have trouble identifying different animal related categories is because they share many features.

Crowding

Our knowledge of concepts comes from the reactivation of neurons when we interact with them again.

Embodied approach

- Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis
- Semantic category approach
- Multiple factor approach
- Crowding
- Embodied approach

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Encompasses all of the possible examples of a concept. For example the category of dogs includes poodles, pugs and bulldogs. 

Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Prototype

Larger more general categories and concepts are at the top and flow into smaller more specific subcategories and concepts creating a hierarchy.

Hierarchical organization

People can have brain damage where their memory is impaired, but only when trying to identify certain types of categories. For example, some patients with brain damage from encephalitis were able to remember non-animal objects (i.e. furniture and tools) but were not able to identify animals.

Category-specific memory impairment 

One way to categorize things is to separate them into artifacts (non-living) and living things.

Artifacts and Living things

A person is trying to mentally group the following items: a car, a bus, a bicycle, and a skateboard. Which of the following statements best explains why 'Vehicles' is a more cognitively useful category for these items than 'Objects with wheels'?

The cognitive process by which concepts are sorted into categories. This process structures our experiences and enables us to give them greater personal meaning.

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