A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories.

Ex: Crows are "birdier" compared to penguins.

When we see people we mentally shift them (race, gender, etc) further towards our category prototypes, despite it being not as close as we claim to the prototype.

Ex: Berlin students- see white people with 70% white features now 80%- associate with prototype, same with any stereotype (It guides our thinking, but it does not always make us wise)

The farther the new items are from the example, the category boundaries blur. It is then harder to percieve which catergory something is in, causing issues.

Ex: Tomato a fruit?

Ex: Heart attack symptoms- not striking pain in chest? Not it.

Learn: AP Psychology Unit 2- Perception and Thinking