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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–8Cite as

Concept Formation

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  • First Online:

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Synonyms

Analogical reasoning; Categorization; Concept discrimination; Concept learning; Entropy; Relation-between-relations; Relational understanding; Same-different concepts

Definition

The process of forming mental structures within which categorical and relational information is stored.

Introduction

Animals live in complex perceptual and, in many cases, social environments, in which they encounter information that must be processed and stored in memory for later use. That information is then organized into units in order to reduce the amount of information that has to be processed, stored, and later recalled; these units are termed “concepts” (Rosch et al. 1976). Concepts are mental representations of information formed during the process of categorization. Through experience with the world, these concepts become more complex connected within themselves and more linked between each other. The links within and between concepts allow for painting a broader picture of the perceptual...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA

    Stephanie Jett

Authors
  1. Stephanie Jett
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephanie Jett .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, USA

    Catherine Salmon

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Jett, S. (2016). Concept Formation. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3111-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3111-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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