Chapter 7: Knowing Flashcards
Exam 3 Study Guide
Semantic Memory (generic memory)
memory for knowing;
conceptual knowledge
context dependent
Semantic Knowledge
information (e.g., what Canada is, what a website is, who Tom Hanks is, etc.)
Episodic Memory
individual events that we experience;
context dependent
Arbitrariness
there is no inherent connection between the symbols (sounds and words) employed in a language and the meanings referred to by those units (referents)
Example: there is nothing about a chair that makes it a chair, we just call it that.
Semanticity
the study of word meaning (language must convey meaning)
Example: we know that “cat” means small, furry, domesticated animal; the word “book” means an object with bounded pages that is meant for reading or writing in.
Displacement
the ability to describe things that are removed in space and time
Example: tense of verbs (e.g., here, there, away; past, present, future)
Productivity (generativity)
we can form an infinite number of sentences from a finite number of words
Example: the woman walks home > the woman with long hair walks home > the woman with long curly hair and a dog walks home.
Spreading Activation
the process of accessing and retrieving information from a semantic network
Nodes in a Network
point of location in between semantic space;
nodes linked by pathways
Pathway
a label, directional association between concepts
Network
the entire collection of nodes connected to other nodes by pathways
Smith’s Feature Overlap Model
we represent concepts in long-term memory as feature lists (a collection of independent lists)
Feature Lists
a list of semantic features - simple one-element characteristics or properties of the concept
Semantic Network Model
The “correct” model because it can account for semantic priming, but the feature overlap model cannot
Classical View
people create and use categories based on a system of rules; rules identify necessary and sufficient features for something to be a member of a category
