Chapter 7: Semantic memory and stored knowledge Flashcards
semantic memory
knowledge, facts, stores our basic information
retrieval of episodic vs semantic memory
Retrieval of episodic memory is normally conscious whereas retrieval of semantic has no conscious effort; episodic= self knowing, semantic= knowing awareness
true or false: brain damage affects semantic memory more than episodic
false
retrograde amnesia
Forgetting events prior to amnesia
semantic dementia
a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of semantic memory
Collins and Quillian’s
first systematic model of semantic memory, hierarchical model
problems with collins and Quillians model
Problems with the model is its not as flexible, its oversimplified that a concept of semantic memory is representative of a single node, and it implies that each concept has a single fixed representation which isn’t true
typicality effect
he finding that the time taken to decide a category member belongs to a category is less for typical than atypical members
Two reasons why there are individual differences in deciding which items belong to a given category
Ambiguity- individuals may use different criteria for categorization
Vagueness- individuals may use different cut-offs to separate members from nonmembers
collins and loftus
assumed semantic memory is organized on the basis of semantic relatedness or semantic distance, spreading activation model. activation of any given concept causes activation to spread to other related concepts
categorization at superordinate level vs basic level vs subordinate
Categorization at superordinate level is fastest, less cognitive processing, categorization at the basic level is often preferred because it combines informativeness and distinctiveness, categorization at the subordinate level is often preferred to categorization at the basic level by those possessing relevant expertise
Concept representations of semantic memory have the following characteristics:
They are abstract in nature and are thus detached from input (sensory) and output (motor) processes
They are stable in that any given individual uses the same representation of a concept on different occasions
Different people generally have fairly similar representations of any given concept
Situated simulation theory
concept processing is influenced by the context or setting
emotional stimuli
Emotionally positive stimuli automatically elicits approach tendencies and emotionally negative stimuli elicits avoidance tendencies
hub and spoke model
consists of several modality-specific brain areas in which sensory and motor processing occur
