PSYC 336 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Spreading Activation

• School: University of San Diego
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 336
• Professor: Appleton-Knapp

Document Summary

Nodes an individual unit within an associative network. In local representations nodes represent single ideas or concepts. In distributed representations ideas or concepts are represented by a pattern of activation across a wide number of nodes. Associations or associative links functional connections that are hypothesized to link nodes within a mental network. Hypothesized to be carriers of activation from one node/detector to the next. A node becomes activated when it has received a strong enough input signal. Activates other nodes via its associations. As more activation arrives at a particular node, the activation level for that node increases. A measure of the current status for a node or detector. The activation level will reach the node"s response threshold. The quantity of information or activation needed to trigger a response in a node or detecotr. The node fires is now a source of activation. All will draw attention to that node.