Psychologyspeaking topic
Prototype theory: when someone says 'bird', why do you picture a sparrow and not a penguin? Is belonging to a category a yes-or-no matter, or a question of how typical you are?
— Eleanor Rosch, prototype theory
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- Being chronically online means internet logic has replaced ordinary judgment. What are the signs, and how would you know if it happened to you?
- Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation: do we do things for their own sake, or for a reward waiting outside? How much does it matter for learning whether you study out of curiosity or just to pass the exam?
- Emotional reasoning: 'I feel awful, so things must be awful.' Can a feeling ever count as evidence about reality?
- Procedural memory: we can't explain how to ride a bike, but we can ride one. Why can't knowledge that lives in the body be put into words?
- The Ellsberg paradox: people prefer a risk with known odds to an ambiguity with unknown ones; a familiar bad beats an unfamiliar maybe. Why do we cling to a known misery over an unknown hope?