chapter 9 - part 2

The Spreading Activation Model accounts for:

-typicality -semantic relatedness -semantic priming

Associative priming

refers to a relation in which one word (typically the target) is frequently provided in a free association task (cat - dog)

response threshold

the amount of activation necessary for retrieval

node

a concept of point in the network

Property verification task

A canary can sing. (1,305 ms) A canary has wings. (1,395 ms) A canary has skin. (1,480 ms)

Sentence/category verification test: heard sentence & responded

A canary is a canary. (1,000 ms) A canary is a bird. (1,160 ms) A canary is an animal. (1,240 ms) greater # = slower response time

The Spreading Activation Model (Collins & Loftus, 1975)

Abandoned the principle of cognitive economy and hierarchy -concepts & properties represented by nodes-

link

a relation between nodes in the network ISA (category) carrot to vegetable HASA (property) carrot has a orange color

"pure" semantic priming

Prime & target share only a semantic relationship (ex: same category, functional); they are not associated (goat - dog) weaker effect.

problems with the Hierarchal Model: Typicality:

Smith, Shoben. & Rips (1974) A robin is a bird. < An ostrich is a bird

Spreading activation explanation of Result:

When PS saw the word nurse, the node representing that concept became active & passed to all relating concepts, including doctor

Spreading activation

When accessing a concept (ex: reading a word) its mental representation (node) receives a boost in activation. Once a concept becomes activated, that activation spreads throughout the network along the connecting pathways

Which of the following is most closely modeled on the way the nervous system operates? a. Parallel distributed processing theory b. The prototype approach c. Semantic network theory d. Enhancement due to priming

a. Parallel distributed processing theory

Learning takes place in a connectionist network through a process of ________ in which an error signal is transmitted from output units towards the input units. a. back propagation b. spreading activation c. error verification d. graceful degradation

a. back propagation

network

an interrelated set of concepts or body of knowledge

At what age do infants begin forming basic level categories? a. 6-7 months b. 3-4 months c. 1 year d. 2 months

b. 3-4 months

Which approach to categorization involves forming a representation based on an average of category members that a person has encountered in the past? a. Typicality b. Prototype c. Exemplar d. Network

b. Prototype

People playing the parlor game "20 Questions" often use hierarchical organization strategies. One player asks up to 20 yes/no questions to determine the identity of an object another player has selected. The player's questions usually start as general and get more specific as the player approaches a likely guess. Initial questions asked by a player are often one of three questions: "Is it an animal?" "Is it a vegetable?" and "Is it a mineral?" Each of these three questions describes which level of categorization? a. Subordinate b. Typical c. Superordinate d. Basic

c. Superordinate

A task for determining how prototypical an object is would be: a. a fill-in-the-blank task where participants generate the category classification for a list of members. b. a task where participants rate the extent to which category members resemble one another. c. a task where participants rate the extent to which each member represents the category title. d. a fill-in-the-blank task where participants generate paired members within a category.

c. a task where participants rate the extent to which each member represents the category title.

How is cognitive economy represented in the following example? The property ________ is stored at the ________ node. a. bird; penguin b. has feathers; ostrich c. can fly; bird d. can fly; canary

c. can fly; bird

If a system has the property of graceful degradation, this means that: a. it is either functioning at 100 percent, or it is not functioning at all. b. it can be set to operate at "low efficiency" or "high efficiency" depending on the demand of the current task. c. damage to the system doesn't completely disrupt its operation. d. it loses information at a very slow rate.

c. damage to the system doesn't completely disrupt its operation.

Inheritance

concepts at lower levels inherit features from higher levels

f we were conducting an experiment on the effect knowledge has on categorization, we might compare the results of expert and non-expert groups. Suppose we compare horticulturalists to people with little knowledge about plants. If we asked the groups to name, as specifically as possible, five different plants seen around campus, we would predict that the expert group would primarily label plants on the ________ level, while the non-expert group would primarily label plants on the ________ level. a. basic; subordinate b. superordinate; subordinate c. superordinate; basic d. subordinate; basic

d. subordinate; basic

For the category "fruit," people give a higher typicality rating to "banana" than to "kiwi." Knowing that, we can also reason that: a. neither kiwi nor banana are likely to be the fruit "closest" to the prototype of the fruit category. b. people will have a similar number of exemplars for kiwi and banana. c. when people are asked to list all the fruits they can think of, kiwi will usually appear on their list before banana. d. the word "fruit" will lead to a larger priming effect for banana than for kiwi.

d. the word "fruit" will lead to a larger priming effect for banana than for kiwi.

Cognitive economy

features are represented at their highest level of generality in order to avoid redundancy

activation

increased accessibility of one concept after seeing another

Semantic priming Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971): lexical decision task (LDT) Result

lexical decision is faster in the related condition.

The Hierarchal Model (Collins & Quillian, 1972) says that semantic memory is...

organized in a hierarchical manner

Semantic priming Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971): lexical decision task (LDT) lexical: relating to the words or vocabulary of a language.

unrelated condition: butter - doctor related condition: nurse - doctor

Collins are Loftus modified the original hierarchical model of Collins and Quillian (1972) to satisfy some of the criticisms of the original model. In their modification, Collins & Loftus (1975) account for the typicality affect by

using shorter links to connect more closely related concepts

problems with the Hierarchal Model: semantic relatedness:

we see animal co-occuring w/ dog more frequently Rips, Shoben & Smith (1973): A dog is an animal < a dog is a mammal