Base-level categories are basic events, objects, patterns, emotions, spatial or social relationships. They are the first named and understood by children and reflect natural kinds. Prototype theory suggests that categories have a radial structure, with some members more representative than others. This theory revolutionized categorization and is an important component of modern psychology.
In cognitive psychology, a basic level category is a family of cognitively basic events, objects, patterns, emotions, spatial relationships, or social relationships. “Dog,” “chair,” “ball,” and “cup” are examples of entry-level categories. Base-level categories share a variety of properties with each other. Among other similarities, they are the level first named and understood by children, the level with the shortest primary lexemes, the earliest level to enter the lexicon of a language, the level at which subjects are quickest to identify members of the category, the level at which most of our knowledge is organized, the level that most closely reflects natural kinds, and the highest level at which a single mental image can reflect the entire category.
Base-level categories tend to stay in the middle of the typical general-to-specific categorical hierarchies. For example, in the classification of lifeforms, the entry-level category tends to be at the level of the genus (oak, maple, rabbit, raccoon, etc.). If I run up a tree on a trail, I might call it a “plant,” a “tree,” a “leafy tree,” a “sugar maple,” or “trimmed staghorn sumac,” but I will most likely just call it “maple.” The more general categories of “maple” are likely to be mentally represented as superior categories, while the more specific categories are likely to be represented as subordinate categories. In studies of Tzeltal speakers living in Tenejapa in Mexico’s Chiapas region, anthropologist Brent Berlin and his collaborators determined that popular categorization of plants and animals at the basic level reflected scientific classifications very well, while divergences from the basic level basis led to significant misalignments.
The modern concept of base-level categories and its empirical support were first compiled and articulated by Eleanor Rosch.
As it continued to develop, it became known as “the theory of prototypes and basic level categories”, or simply “theory of prototypes”. Prototype theory is widely regarded as a breakthrough in experimental psychology, revolutionizing ideas of categorization and replacing an earlier classical theory that defined categories much more rigidly, in ways that did not match the empirical evidence. Rosch’s theories were inspired by earlier work by psychologist and anthropologist Robert Brown.
Going hand-in-hand with the idea of base-level categories is the idea of prototypicality: categories have a “radial structure”, i.e. some category members are more representative of their category than others. For example, a robin is considered a more typical example of a bird than an ostrich. There is an asymmetric relationship between prototypical category members and nontypical category members: nontypicals are thought to possess similarities to prototypes, while the inverse relationship is much weaker. When given a set of examples, such as a set of colored chips, both adults and children are more likely to select prototypes as a “typical example” of an arbitrarily defined category, even when the prototype is not a central example of the category because it is defined.
Prototype theory is an important component of modern empirically testable psychological theories. Considering that human cognition is saturated with inferences about categories and category members, both conscious and subconscious, category research is an essential part of uncovering how the human mind works. As psychological research continues to develop and is enhanced by ever more precise techniques, tools and theories, categories will be the target of many fruitful research projects.
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