Semantic Memory (General Knowledge)
This term for memory stores our knowledge about the world including meanings of words and general facts
What is semantic memory?
This approach says we decide if something belongs to a category by comparing it to an “ideal” or most typical member
What is the prototype approach?
This approach says we decide category membership by comparing an item to specific remembered examples like particular birds you’ve seen
What is the exemplar approach?
In network models, this term refers to a single unit in the mental network that becomes activated when we hear or see a concept
What is a node?
This term refers to generalized, well-integrated knowledge about a situation, event, or person (ex: your knowledge of what usually happens in a classroom)
What is a schema?
This term describes a set of objects that belong together like “dogs,” “furniture,” or “vehicles”
What is a category?
People usually name objects at this level first (hint: for example, “dog” instead of “animal” or “golden retriever")
What is the basic level of categorization?
In the exemplar approach, these remembered specific instances of a category (like your own dog or a robin you often see) are called...?
What are exemplars?
This term describes how activation spreads from one concept to related concepts in a network, helping us access related ideas.
What is spreading activation?
This more specific type of schema is a well-structured sequence of events in a particular order (ex: what usually happens at a sit-down restaurant)
What is a script?
This term refers to your mental representation of a category (hint: what comes to mind when you think of something like “psychology” or “bird"?)
What is a concept?
According to research on color naming, people make faster judgments about typical examples than non-typical ones after a related word is presented. This effect is called...?
What is the semantic priming effect?
This approach is especially useful for small categories (like “U.S. presidents you’ve met”) where we can store and use individual examples (hint: look back at the first question in this category)
What is the exemplar approach?
In Anderson’s (1973) ACT-R approach, the basic unit of knowledge is this: a small statement that can be judged true or false such as “cats chase mice”
What is a proposition?
When people remember seeing more of a scene than was actually shown (like adding more background to a picture of trash cans) this memory error is called...?
What is boundary extension?
This approach says our knowledge depends on the context around us (hint: what we know and how we use it is shaped by the specific situation)
What is the situated cognition approach?
Researchers describe categories like “vehicle” or “vegetable” as having this kind of structure, with some members more representative and some less typical.
What is a graded structure?
When categories have many members, this approach does a better job because we don’t need to store every individual example
What is the prototype approach?
This approach, also called connectionism or neural networks, says many neuron-like units process information at the same time across multiple locations
What is the parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach?
When we remember the overall meaning of a message but not the exact wording, we are using this process, contrasted with verbatim memory
What is abstraction?
Name two ways semantic memory (general knowledge) helps other cognitive processes such as perception or memory
Any of the following: 1) supports top-down perception, 2) guides attention, 3) helps chunk information, 4) organizes material for long-term memory, and 5) can also distort memories to fit what we already know
This term from Rosch and Mervis (1975) describes how items in a category share several overlapping attributes but no single attribute is shared by all members
What is family resemblance?
Overall research suggests our semantic memory is flexible. Instead of using only one strategy, we often combine these two major approaches to categories which are...
What are the prototype and exemplar approaches?
In PDP models, the strength of the connections between units can change with learning. This connection strength is known by this term
What is connection weight?
According to research on schemas and stereotypes, people often remember information that fits gender stereotypes better than information that doesn’t. This term shows how schemas influence this later stage, where new information is stored in a schema-consistent way
What is memory integration (using schemas to shape what we store and recall)?