Knowledge-based View
Categorization depends on your knowledge of how concepts are organized, the purpose of the category, and your theories about the world.
Why go beyond similarity?
Things belong together not just because they look alike, but because they make sense together for some reason.
Canonical example
Children, pets, photo albums, family heirlooms, cash. These don’t look like one obvious category, but if the house is on fire they become “things to save.” No similarity-based view explains this; the grouping is only coherent with respect to the goal.
- Strength: explains why categories can be flexible and purpose-dependent
Explanation-based, not similarity-based. Paired with the Schemata View.
Takeaway
The view that fits best is “all of them get used,” depending on what you’re categorizing:
- Shapes: Classical View
- Animals / natural categories: Prototype View
- Experience-heavy judgments: Exemplar View
- Meaningful, goal-based groupings: Knowledge-based View