PSYC 3610 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Semantic Memory, Semantic Network, Exemplar Theory
20 Jun 2018
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CHAPTER 5 SEMANTIC MEMORY
Semantic Memory
Associative Structures in Semantic
Memory
Semantic Priming and Lexical
Decision Tasks
Semantic Verification Tasks
Concepts and Categories
Categories are Fuzzy
Family Resemblance
Exemplar Theory
Evidence for Exemplar Theory
Feature Comparison Theory
Prototype Theory
Evidence for Prototype Theory
Situated Stimulation Theory
Schemas and Scripts
Reconstruction of Events
Semantic Memory and Music
Language, Lexical Memory, and
Semantic Memory
What is Language?
Linguistic terms
Lexical Memory
Levels of Representation
Word Errors
Bilingual Representation
How are Languages Learned by
Young Children?
Features Learned Early by
Young Children
Second Language Learning in
Adulthood
Harley (2008)
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Semantic Memory
• Semantic memory: the neurocognitive system that encodes, stores, and
retrieves information concerning general world knowledge
• In semantic memory, we attribute retrieval of information to truth about the
world.
• Lexical memory/lexicon: mental dictionary, a representational system for the
words of our language
o Considered a separate neurocognitive system from semantic and
episodic memory
• Psycholinguists are interested in the structure of the representational system
involved in lexical memory for a number of reasons.
o Lexical memory must maintain a huge number of items (words and
rules of grammar).
o Access to these items must be extremely fast in order to support
normal speech and normal speech comprehension.
Associative Structures in Semantic Memory
• Associative model: we represent information in semantic memory in terms of
connections among units of information
o A node is the unit of memory, which is then connected to other nodes.
• Nodes may be strongly connected or less strongly connected.
• As the activation spreads to multiple nodes, it fades, and we can no longer
see the trail of activation.
• Thus, in association models of semantic memory, our memory is a web of
interconnected ideas and facts.
• Semantic network models posit that retrieval takes place when one node is
activated based on the input from a cue.
• Spreading activation: transfer of activation from one node to an associated
node
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• As soon as a node is activated, some but lesser amount of activation spreads
to the node that is connected.
o Thus, activation spreads from one node to the next when one node is
activated.
• An important component of these models is that activation weakens as it
spreads from node to node.
• Collin and Loftus (1975) spreading activation model focuses on the idea of a
web of connections among nodes (or concepts) within the model.
o Activation spreads along this web, even when the web is not
necessarily logical or organized.
• Hierarchical network model: a model in which semantic memory is
organized by levels or hierarchies in which particular nodes are associated
with that level, but not with higher or lower levels
o This leads to the prediction that when a person is asked to make
decisions about aspects of a concept that are stored at a different
level of the hierarchy, they will be slower than when asked about
aspects of a concept stored at the same level.
Semantic Priming and Lexical Decision Tasks
• Semantic priming: the effect of one word or idea on the processing of a
related word or idea
o A related word will activate a target item and allow it to be processed
more quickly.
• When a particular node is activated, that activation will spread to associated
nodes.
o Activation of these additional nodes should make it easier for the
person to process the associated items.
• Priming refers to the effect of the first presented word or name on the
response to the later word or name.
o Priming will generally work better when the two items are also
presented closely in time.
Document Summary
Semantic memory: semantic memory: the neurocognitive system that encodes, stores, and retrieves information concerning general world knowledge. 3: lexicon decision tasks: a cognitive task in which participants must judge as quickly as they can whether a string of letters is a word or not. This is because stripes is associated with tiger, and tiger is associated with lion: mediated priming can also cross over from semantic characteristics to phonological characteristics. Categories are fuzzy: each category has fuzzy boundaries, boundary conditions are important in defining categories. Family resemblance: family resemblance: membership in a category may be defined by each item"s general similarity other members in the category rather than by a specific list of features. 7: family resemblance takes into account that many categories are multimodal, with many characteristics that may apply, e. g. , penguins and ostriches are less central members of the bird category.
