Semantic Memory

Question 1

QuWhat is Semantic Memory

Answer 1

General knowledge about the world that can include: Facts, Concepts, Schemes/Scripts

Question 2

Declarative Memory is stored in the ___ and recall is _____

Answer 2

LTM, Conscious

Question 3

Explain what Schemas are

Answer 3

organised memory structures that organise CATEGORIES of information (e.g. CONCEPTS) and the RELATIONSHIPS among them.

Organise packets of information about the world, people and events

Question 4

Tree is a _____ and a Forest is a _____

Answer 4

Concept, Schema

So we are organising how different concepts around the world are related to each other to form schemas.

Question 5

In the network models, what do nodes represent?

Answer 5

Concepts

Question 6

In the network models, what do the links between nodes represent?

Answer 6

Relationships between concepts

Question 7

What was the core idea of Collins & Quillian’s Hierarchical Network Model?

Answer 7

Concepts are organised in a hierarchy

Question 8

In Collins & Quillian’s Hierarchical Model 1969, the highest level in the hierarchy is the most specific. True or false?

Answer 8

False (the highest level is the most general eg. animal)

Question 9

What does Collins & Quillian’s Hierarchical Network Model predict of reaction time in sentence verification tasks?

Answer 9

Reaction time increases according to the number of levels that need to be accessed to verify the question

Question 10

What is Priming

Answer 10

Remembering related items that weren’t actually seen is an example of ‘PRIMING’ – an important experimental method used in both memory and language research

Question 11

In relation to the Collins & Quillian’s Hierarchical Network Model, what challenges did Conrad propose?

Answer 11

Reaction time is better explained by frequency of co-occurrence of concept and property rather than the number of levels accessed. Research has found that place in the hierarchy had little impact on speed of recall when familiarity was controlled for. Familiarity is more related to explaining semantic memory retrieval.

Question 12

What are the three criticisms of Collins & Quillian’s Hierarchical Network Model?

Answer 12

There are within-category typicality effects (A canary is a bird vs. an ostrich is a bird). both involve moving one level in hierarchy, but one takes longer.(Rosch, 1973)* Speed of recall may be impacted by typicality*

Some categories can be a little fuzzy (McCloskey & Gluckberg) Thinking about typical fruits, a tomato or olive

FAMILIALITY (e.g. Conrad, 1972)* For example, when considering the information “a canary is yellow” vs. “acanary has skin” we probably never encountered the second statementbefore.* Research has found that place in hierarchy had little impact on speed ofrecall when familiarity was controlled for

Question 13

What is the main idea for Collins and Loftus’ Spreading Activation Model?

Answer 13

Concepts are organised non-hierarchically with links varying in associative strength, with activation of one node spreading to neighbouring nodes

Question 14

Collins & Loftus’ Spreading Activation Model is able to explain what three effects Collins & Quillian’s Hierarchical Network Model can’t?

Answer 14

Lack of hierarchical effect, typicality effect and semantic priming effect

Question 15

Familiarity and recollection are supported by

Answer 15

a dual-process memory system, according to the dual-process model of recognition memory proposed by Smith, Shoben, and Rips.

Question 16

What does the model by Smith, Shoben, and Rips suggest?

Answer 16

This model suggests that recognition memory involves two distinct processes: familiarity, which is a sense of knowing that an item has been encountered before without any specific details or context, and recollection, which involves the retrieval of specific details or contextual information associated with the item.

Question 17

According to perceptual-functional theory, how are non-living things distinguished from one another?

Answer 17

By functional properties

Question 18

What are some problems with perceptual-functional theory?

Answer 18

Patients don’t necessarily show selective impairments for either perceptual or functional knowledge
Some properties are neither perceptual or functional, also conceptual knowledge

Question 19

What are some problems with Smith, Shoben & Rips’ Feature Comparison Model?

Answer 19

Clear definitions of defining and characteristic features are lacking

Question 20

Intro on how semantic memory is a distribution system

Answer 20

Semantic memory can be conceptualized as a distribution system that stores and organizes our knowledge about the world. This essay will explore the characteristics of semantic memory as a distribution system, how it functions, and its implications for cognitive processing.

Question 21

Semantic priming is generally more successful than…

Answer 21

hierarchical network model due to its flexibility, but due to flexibility it does not always make very precise predictions