Unit 5: Memory & Judgment, Semantic Memory Flashcards

Question

What are the important issues of semantic memory?

Answer 1

how is complex information acquired, revised, represented, organized, accessed, manipulated some basic elements are understood in a general way: semantic networks, spreading activation, schemata/scripts potential building blocks for a more complete understanding of the psychology of complex knowledge

Answer 2

semantic memory is organized as a network of interrelated concepts each concept is represented as a node concepts are linked together by pathways "length" of pathways reflects degree of semantic relatedness/associative strength concepts close in meaning/highly related (e.g., red, fire) stored close together unrelated concepts (red, street) are stored far away

Answer 3

accessed node is a source of activation activation spreads from source to related nodes the amount of activation received by a give node is a function of path length the more active a concept is, the more readily it will be retrieved

Answer 4

retrieving a given concept should be easier when it is proceeded by a related concept than when it is not

Answer 5

implication of spreading activation account a given concept should be primed - responded to more rapidly/accurately - when it is preceded by a related concept than when it is not therefore, lexical decisions should be faster when target preceded by related word than when not

Answer 6

task: lexical decision with word pairs both items are word --> YES one item is a non-word --> NO both items are non-words --> NO

Answer 7

associated word pairs: nurse - doctor unrelated word pairs: bread - doctor word and non-word: bread - treb non-word and word: treb - bread non-word and non-word: treb - manty

Answer 8

word-word pairs: associated RT < unassociated RT

Answer 9

spreading activation is assumed automatic do expectancies affect semantic access? can activation be control?

Answer 10

basic premises: 2 components to priming automatic component: fast, effortless, unaffected by intention/expectation controlled component: attentional, slow, effortful, benefits (if correct), costs (if incorrect)

Answer 11

goal: contrast automatic and controlled priming task: lexical decision -- timed word/non-word decision trail: prime --> target --> response

Answer 12

see Bird as prime expect a bird name as target 1. neutral: XXXX -- robin 2. no shift: BIRD -- robin (80% primed trials) 3. shift (unexpected): BIRD --arm (20% primed trials)

Answer 13

see BODY as prime, expect a BUILDING part as target 1. neutral: XXXX -- heart 2. no shift: BODY -- heart (10% primed trials) 3. shift (expected): BODY -- door (80% primed trials) 4. shift (unexpected): BODY -- robin (10% primed trials)

Answer 14

a priming effect: neutral trials - primed trials two type of priming effects: facilitation effects -- positive priming priming effect is positive -- neutral > primed inhibition effect -- negative priming priming effect is negative -- neutral < primed

Answer 15

1. no-shift, same-category pairs (bird-robin): substantial facilitation at all SOA 2. shift, different-category pairs (bird-arm): inhibition increases with SOA

Answer 16

1. expected shift (BODY -- door): facilitation increases with SOA 2. no-shift, same-category (BODY -- heart): facilitation at smallest SOA, increasing inhibition at longer SOAs 3. shift to unexpected category (BODY --robin): inhibition at all SOAs, inhibition increases with SOA

Answer 17

1. automatic spreading activation: originates at prime, spreads to related concepts, decays rapidly 2. attention required to maintain activation over longer SOAs 3. focusing attention on one category: facilitates (primes) processing of category members, interferes with the processing (reading/word recognition) of items from other categories 4. in the shift-expected condition, subjects shift attention to and maintain attention for cued category: it takes time to shift attention to new category, once attention is shifted, focus is on the new category

Answer 18

shifting categories takes time maintaining focus on indicated category facilitates processing of focal category members reduces attentional resources required to read and decide whether letter string is a word

Answer 19

general knowledge representation based on relatedness, meaning-based similarity

Answer 20

automatic consequence of processing a related information preparation for encountering the expected

Answer 21

complex, stable knowledge structures occupations, geographical/architectural layouts, story structures, etc.

Answer 22

schemata representing stereotypical event sequences

Answer 23

this knowledge is represented in semantic memory and used extensive in planning, comprehension, and recall (reconstruction)

Answer 24

English undergrads read a North American Indian legend twice recalled the story once after 15 minutes and then over of the course of several months

Answer 25

the story became shorter and more coherent "no trace of an odd, or supernatural element is left: we have perfectly straightforward story of a fight and a death" achieved by: omissions: ghosts omitted early; the wound became a matter of flesh, not spirit rationalization: growing coherence among parts transformation of details into more familiar and conventional changing order of events

Answer 26

reproduction distorted in ways that brought the story increasing in lines with European: narrative conventions and beliefs

Answer 27

participants combined fragmentary story memory with schematic knowledge to reconstruct a "sensible" story

Answer 28

when present: schema-consistent info is well remembered, schema-inconsistent info is less well remembered when NOT present: schema-consistent info often falsely remembered (schema-driven reconstruction), schema-inconsistent info generally not falsely remembered

Answer 29

schemata that capture general information about routine event sequences: eating in a restaurant, attending a movie, visiting a doctor's office, attending class, going to the beach scripts identify central (& less central) actions & typical (& atypical) roles, & props when not specified (or experienced) central actions & typical roles & props inferred/reconstructed

Answer 30

four 13-slide sequences a sequence represented one script-based activity (e.g. grocery shopping) including: HIGH schema-relevant items (e.g. get shopping cart) LOW schema-relevant items (e.g. put food on belt) presentation: 5.5s/slide

Answer 31

0-to-5 recognition confidence judgment on each slide: 0 = certain slide not seen 5 = certain slide was seen

Answer 32

for OLD items: recognition very good, high > low for NEW items at 15 minute delay: high > low, tendency to infer/reconstruct stronger for high-relevance items

Answer 33

OLD items: memory still very good false recognition increases greatly for high-relevance items

Answer 34

semantic networks can represent simple facts and reflect conceptual similarity/relatedness/co-occurrence semantic priming is well established process serves to prime related information schemata/scripts - complex, stable knowledge structures captures generalizations re: complex, but regular features of experience facilitate/bias perception & memory

Answer 35

develop detailed extensions of these notions to deal with full range of knowledge domains and modalities