n. in cognitive psychology, a category for which the most-frequently applied term is among the earliest learned and the most readily remembered. Being of the first level easily understood by children, it likewise represents the highest level at which humans have a single, similar mental image of the general shape and traits which can be attributed to this object, pattern, relationship, or event.
BASIC-LEVEL CATEGORY: “In general, mental images generated by the words cat, dog, sun, or heart are vivid enough to belong under the basic-level categoy.”