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Concept categorization
Categorization
is a central topic in cognitive psychology, in
linguistics,
and in
philosophy,
but it is crucial precisely in
learning.
Concept categorization enables the student to classify (or to
recognize the classification of) objects or concepts that belong to
a group. This characteristic accelerates the thinking process,
favors the immediate selective perception (it is a graphic, or
better "multimodal",
representation) and facilitates generalization and learning.
Conceptual categories are higher order concepts, and
they express the specific role of concepts in their contexts, and in
concept mapping they are visual elements relevant to analysis, even
with a subliminal effect. Given a category, which are the
characteristics and attributes of all objects it comprises?
Categorization, together with processing and
analogical reasoning, has a special role in the inference of
non-explicit information, that the learner can infer from what
he/she has seen and/or heard.
Concept categorization:
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is an
information
strategy
(human beings are mainly information processors); |
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is a
useful mode of considering things in an
inclusive and
general mode, and even though still being
able to recognize the
differences between them; |
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has an
effect of cognitive economy,
in referring common attributes to different objects; |
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has a
role in the functioning of human memory,
in the simplified storage of information; |
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includes
stimuli processing,
construction activation; |
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it is
also an answer to
information overload. |
At the same time categorization is an activation
process of knowledge and of its construction. Even
relation types can be categorized.
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