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PSY270 > Lecture 6: Semantic Memory > Flashcards

Lecture 6: Semantic Memory Flashcards

1
Q

What is a knowledge category?

A
  • group of objects that belong together and have something in common
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2
Q

What is an exemplar?

A
  • item in the category
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3
Q

Why are categories important for prediction?

A
  • categories allow us to predict what is likely in new situations because they treat all exemplars as similar
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4
Q

What is the classic view of categorization?

A
  • categories are defined by a list of necessary and sufficient features
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5
Q

What is a necessary feature?

A
  • item must have all defining features to be included in the category
  • i.e. humans are bipedal mammals
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6
Q

What is a sufficient feature?

A
  • attribute not required for category membership
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7
Q

What is the problem with the classic view?

A
  • items can be categorized as whether they are more or less typical examples of a category than others (graded membership)
  • leads to typicality effects
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8
Q

What is prototype theory?

A
  • categories have a graded structure

- rather than a set of defining features, exemplars have characteristic features

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9
Q

How is category membership determined according to prototype theory?

A
  • determined by matching the item with prototype stored in memory
  • categories have a central tendency where exemplars with most characteristic features are found
  • all category members share a family resemblance even if they are not typical
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10
Q

What is exemplar theory?

A
  • items are divided into categories and sorted based on defining features + exceptions
  • categories are based on mental accounts of each experience, instance, or example of the encounters a person has had with members of that category
  • generalize from many members to form a prototype
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11
Q

What is the problem with similarity theories like prototype and exemplar theory?

A
  • people can give typicality ratings to clearly defined categories
    (rank these numbers based on their “odd-ness”)
  • people can make up reasons that two items are similar
    (how are a television and a banana similar?)
  • category members may not be typical, and typical cases may not be category members
    (is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?)
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12
Q

What is the theory-based or explanation-based view of meaning?

A
  • knowledge and beliefs are important for categorizing
  • we have complex IMPLICIT ideas about categories and concepts
    → includes idea of the CAUSE of category membership, not just features
    → “psychological essentialism” i.e. things just are that way because they are
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13
Q

How did Rips’s 1989 experiment demonstrate psychological essentialism?

A
  • cats can’t be anything else but cats
  • toasters can become something other than a toaster
  • something about them is essentially this or that
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14
Q

What are semantic network models?

A
  • concerned with how different items are related to each other
  • all network models are based on idea that nodes contain information that are connected to each other by directional pathways
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15
Q

How are nodes in semantic network models activated?

A
  • activated via spreading activation to connected pathways

→ primes related concepts

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16
Q

What is Collins & Quillian’s hierarchical model?

A
  • nodes are in a network where a set of concepts that are related to each other are connected
  • concepts can activate some or several nodes
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17
Q

What is Collins & Loftus’ Semantic Relatedness model?

A
  • nodes are organised based on the strength of their relationship
  • stronger associations are represented by shorter pathways
    → thus typical exemplars have shorter pathways
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18
Q

What are feature comparison models of semantic memory?

A
  • believe categories exist as a list of features (both defining and characteristic)
    → similar to classic view
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19
Q

How is category retrieval accomplished by feature comparison models?

A
  • accomplished by comparing feature lists in 2 stages:
    → Stage I is a fast search for large feature overlap.
    → Stage II is a slower search for defining feature overlap.
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20
Q

What are connectionist models of semantic memory?

A
  • based on how brain is structured

- consists of highly connected neuron-like units

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21
Q

What are the features of the units in connectionist models?

A
  • layer of output, hidden, and input units
  • each unit can be inactive, excitatory, or inhibitory
  • each unit has a connection with different weights (+1 to -1)
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22
Q

How is information stored in connections models?

A
  • stored as a pattern of activation

- new information changes the weights so the pattern

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23
Q

Why is remembering reconstructive?

A
  • use general knowledge and expectations based on past experiences to organize memories
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24
Q

What was Bartlett’s work with memory?

A
  • repeated reproduction technique
    → used stories, poems and had people memorize them
    → then asked to retell the story several times over several intervals
  • reported the constructive nature of memory
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25
Q

What is the advantage of schemas?

A
  • help us organize our memories
  • focus our limited resources
  • reduce memory load
  • make inferences
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26
Q

What was Bransford & Johnson’s work on memory?

A
  • strong evidence that schemas help organize information and improve recall
  • passage provided with/without context
  • can link details to well-established knowledge in LTM
27
Q

What was Brewer & Treyens’s work on memory?

A
  • office memory study
  • showed how people use schemas to reduce memory load
    → people showed good memory for “office schema” items
    → people “remembered” items that were consistent wiith “office schema” but not present
28
Q

What was Bower, Black & Turner’s work on memory?

A
  • participants remember script-like passages
    → irrelevant details (32%)
    → script actions (38%)
    → obstacles/distractions (53%)
  • participants able to direct limited attention and memory to info that is important for the situation based on past experience
29
Q

What is a “schema-copy-plus-tag” approach?

A
  • memory load is reduced by storing only one general copy of a schema/script
  • resources can “tag” information that doesn’t match the schema
  • explains why memory is “good” for schema consistent information and why we often include false memories to match our schemas
30
Q

What is semantic memory?

A
  • permanent memory store of general world knowledge
  • conceptual knowledge
  • similar between individuals in terms of structure and processes
31
Q

What brain regions are dependent on semantic memory?

A
  • lateral temporal lobe

- anterior prefrontal cortex

32
Q

What is a semantic network?

A
  • interrelated set of concepts that provide the structure of semantic memory
33
Q

What is a node in a semantic network?

A
  • a point or location in the semantic space

- represents a concept

34
Q

What is a pathway in a semantic network?

A
  • links concept nodes

- are labeled directional associations between concepts

35
Q

What is spreading activation?

A
  • retrieval of information from the semantic network
36
Q

What is a proposition in a semantic network?

A
  • a relation between two concepts
37
Q

What are semantic features?

A
  • simple, one-element properties of the concept

- defining (essential) or characteristic (common but not essential)

38
Q

What is sentence verification task?

A
  • simple sentences are presented for yes/no decisions
  • response time measures are used
  • theoretically two concepts closer together should have lower response times
39
Q

What is the semantic relatedness effect?

A
  • concepts that are more highly related are retrieved faster
40
Q

What are the advantages of connectionist models?

A
  • similar to the network of neurons in the brain
  • units are similar to neurons in the brain that fire/don’t fire
  • positive and negative weights between units parallel excitatory/inhibitory neural synapses
  • activity of a connectionist model is massively parallel i.e. multiple processes are co-occurring in a model at various levels
41
Q

What is a category-specific deficit?

A
  • disruption in which person loses access to one semantic category of words or concepts while not losing others
42
Q

What did Warrington & Shalice suggest was the cause of category-specific deficit?

A
  • selective disruption of sensory knowledge in semantic memory
    → know animals and other living things by sight, smell, sounds
    → know objects by function
43
Q

What is lexical memory?

A
  • mental lexicon or dictionary where word knowledge (as distinct from conceptual knowledge) is stored
44
Q

What is anomia/anomic aphasia?

A
  • inability to name semantic concept, a deficit in word finding
45
Q

What is semantic priming?

A
  • broad activation of concepts in semantic memory

- fundamental consequence of retrieval from semantic memory

46
Q

What are the basic principles of semantic priming?

A

→ process takes time
→ activation of primed concepts is smaller the more removed concepts are from the origin
→ effect decays across time

47
Q

What is a lexical decision task?

A
  • priming task

→ people judge whether a string of letters is a word

48
Q

What is reconstructive memory?

A
  • construct a memory by combining elements from the original together with existing knowledge
49
Q

What aspects of Bartlett’s research lead him to believe that memory is reconstructive?

A

1 - Omissions
→ good recall of main events
→ poor recall of details like specific names or minor events

2 - Normalization/Rationalization
→ successive recalls had people add material that was not in the original story to make them more “normal”
→ removed weirder aspects of the story

50
Q

What is a schema?

A
  • mental framework or body of knowledge about some topic
51
Q

What was Sulin & Dooling’s work that shows the distortion of recall?

A
  • participants presented with a passage describing a political figure who was either fictitious or Adolf Hitler
    → when presented with statements they had to decide if they were the same or not in the passage
    → Hitler group agreed more with statements matching previous knowledge about him (“hates Jews”, “obsessed with world domination”)
    → thematic distortion increases over time
52
Q

What are scripts?

A
  • semantic knowledge that guides understanding of ordered events
53
Q

What is the theory behind scripts?

A
  • people have generalized memory of experienced events which are invoked/retrieved when a new experience matches an old script
54
Q

What is a frame in a script?

A
  • details about events within the script
55
Q

What is a default value in a script?

A
  • common, typical value or concept that occurs on the script
56
Q

What was Abelson’s work on scripts?

A
  • restaurant scripts were used to show that subsequent events in a story are interpreted with reference to a script which is activated by elements in the story
    → “John went to the restaurant and realized he forgot his reading glasses.” = “He was trying to read a menu.”
57
Q

What is a prime?

A
  • any item presented first to see whether it influences a later processing
58
Q

What is the target in a priming task?

A
  • item follows the prime
59
Q

What are the two results of priming?

A
  • facilitation/benefit: positive influence where the target is easier or faster to process
  • inhibition/cost: negative influence on processing where the prime impedes performance to the target
60
Q

What are two studies that show evidence of the use of scripts?

A
  • Smith & Graesser
    → given passsages and correcting or typical scripts, showed higher recall/recognition for atypical events
  • Hannigan & Reinitz
    → shown either cause or effect scenes
    → when later shown new “effect” scenes people recalled them even when they weren’t initially present
61
Q

What is the neuroimaging evidence of probabilistic/exemplar theories?

A
  • rule-based categorization appears to involve brain regions implicated in cognitive control
  • similarity-based categorization appears to involve areas implicated in the configural processing of perceptual images
62
Q

What are ad hoc categories?

A
  • categories that are created based on situational circumstances
    → have characteristics of regular categories
63
Q

What is psychological essentialism?

A
  • people treat members of a category as if they have the same underlying, perhaps invisible, property or essence

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