Further examination of the role and essence of prototype

Prototype theory has cleared up many concepts in classical category theory that are inconsistent with human cognition, making a huge contribution to category research. But in its 40 years of development, the academic community has been constantly debating the role and essence of category prototypes. After re reading the literature on composite category prototypes, it was found that critics did not recognize that the true role of prototype theory lies in describing people's external judgments of categories rather than explaining their mental processing, so questioning is not enough to shake its scientific validity. The article reviews relevant research, clarifies the focus of debate between the positive and negative sides, and further proposes that the essence of"prototype" should be defined as a series of weighted features, rather than a single prototype instance.