semantic priming

after exposure to a primed word, processing of related words is faster

lexical decision tasks

participants judge as quickly as possible whether a string of letters is a word or not -based on reaction time -unaware of priming

Semantic priming effects (6)

1) LDT responses are faster for primed words 2) repeated exposure of two words (not associated before) can lead to priming effects and association 3) semantic priming can occur across languages 4) priming can occur subliminally 5) patients w anomic aphasia can show semantic priming effects -even with trouble with finding words 6) mediated priming effect: prime and target not related semantically, but can be activated by a middle man

sentence verification task

decide as quickly as possible whether a sentence is true or false -this is based on: spreading activation nodes -how close information nodes are so each other, effects reaction time

multilingual representation of concepts, two views

single store view: common level of semantic representation , meaning is shared separate store view: meaning is represented separately for each language

Cross-language semantic priming

when primed word is in one language and target is in another, supports single story view -two mother tongue vs learned later in life

LLMS

make connection between nodes and try to predict outcomes

What is a concept? What is a category?

Concept: mental construct that contains information associated with specific idea Category: mental construct for a SET of associated objects or idea that are grouped together

Levels of categories

superordinate : higher order, more general or common categories -animal Basic: most common, easiest evoke -cat subordinate: more specific or specialized categories -american short hair

level of categories: fun facts

1) levels are fluid based on expertise, american shorthair is basic lvl for some 2)basic lvl information retrieved faster than other two categories 3)colours and patterns more relevant for breed (sub? or basic?) -for concept of animal, meaning areas activated -super ordinate

prototype theory

creating a prototype that includes the central characteristics of the representation of things in the category -does not need to be a true item -when items are more prototypical, they have greater semantic priming

criticism of prototype theory

cannot account for common but atypical items -mirror takes longer to recognize, but ultimately recognized as furniture

exemplar theory

category exists by maintaining a large number of specific instances that are associated with each other in semantic memory -priming can be specific to the exemplar theory -prime green = recognize peacock faster

criticism of exemplar theory

reasource demanding, goes against biological development of brain

Feature comparison theory

maintain list of features for each category two parts -defining features: required to fit into category characteristic features: generally present but not required

feature comparison theory criticism

many things have ambiguous features, what is an emotion ?

situated simulation theory

how a concept is represented in brain is a function of the context that it is presented in bird in zoo vs bird course

What is a schema ?

generalized knowledge abt a person, place, or event -your schema abt attending a lecture

What is a script ?

a well understood sequences of events associated with common activities (daily routine)

Brewer and Treyens lab vs office study

-walk into office and create schema of office then brought into lab and point out how many things were in the office when enter lab: -things that match schema but were not present before are falsely recalled -things that violate office schema well remembered -skull -items irrelevant to schema less relevant -kettle, baskets

How can a schema help with encoding ?

-bransford and johnson laundry story example -schemas help us encode quickly and retrieve quickly

Reconstruction of events using schemas

-1932 war of the ghost study with aboriginal story that was converted into british terms by british children

how can schemas help our memory ? how can they hurt it ?

easier to process information that is common -turning on computer, using microwave, etc can make it difficult to retrieve information that doesn’t really fit a schema -can hurt our memory

theories abt how we store visual information ? (2, i think there’s 3)

propositional representation: we store photos as language like code analog representation: we store images like pictures storage or representation: ?

Sheppard and Mentzlers mental rotation study main findings

-best explained by the analog view -more rotation = longer time to do it -participants report imagining the figures moving -ppl with aphantasia cannot do this exercise

support for the analog view

Kosslyn: imagined pictures have size and salience based on context -rabbit next to elephant -recall more detail from larger imagined object -people take longer to go from A to B on an imagined map if the two locations are farther apart

what does neuroimaging have to say about imagine storage?

-primary visual cortex activation when asked to engage in imagery task -people who do better on imagery task show more activation