WK10 L1: Semantic Models

• What year was the Hierarchical network model proposed by Collins and Quillian?

  1969
• How are concepts represented in the Hierarchical network model?

  By nodes in a network
• What evidence supports the hierarchical organization of concepts?

  Sentence verification task results
• What question was asked in the sentence verification task?

  “Does a canary have skin?”
• What does the evidence from semantic dementia suggest?

  Concepts are organized hierarchically
• Who conducted the developmental studies related to semantic organization?

  Mandler & McDonough
• What are the criticisms of the hierarchical network model?

  • Not all relationships can be represented
  • Unclear links between concepts like truth and justice
  • Ambiguity in attributes like “has wings”
• What is the name of the extended theory proposed by Collins and Loftus?

  Spreading activation network model
• What types of links does the spreading activation network model include?

  Various relationships like “Part-of”
• How does activation spread in the spreading activation network model?

  It weakens as it moves further away
• What example illustrates learned links in the spreading activation model?

  “coffee” → “morning”
• What are the basic levels of categorization according to Rosch et al.?

  • High-Level Categories: Inclusive, few shared features
  • Low-Level Categories: Less inclusive, more shared features
• Why is the basic level of categorization considered special?

  It provides the most additional information
• How can one determine if something is at the basic level?

  By counting features relative to categories
• What is an example of counting features to find the basic level?

  Clothing: Pants vs. Levi’s
• What were the results of the object recognition task regarding basic level labels?

  Had shortest response times
• What did the developmental study find about 3- and 4-year-olds?

  4-year-olds succeeded in superordinate level match
• What are possible confounds in basic level advantages?

  • Category Names: Basic level is mostly 1-word
  • Frequency of terms
  • Specialized Knowledge
• What did Murphy and Smith (1981) study regarding basic levels?

  Basic levels in an artificial language
• What distinguishes non-network models from network models?

  • Non-network models do not use links
  • They focus on the content of semantic information
• What is a prototype in prototype models?

  • A central or representative member of a category
  • Can be the mean or mode
• What are typicality effects in prototype models?

  • Similarity to the prototype is important
  • Typical items are learned and verified quickly
• What is a key disadvantage of a strong prototype model?

  It struggles with exceptions to the prototype
• How do exemplar models explain typicality effects?

  • They account for variability among category members
  • They include specific instances rather than a central prototype
• What was summarized in today's lecture?

  • Network models of meaning/concepts/categories
  • The basic level of categorization
  • Prototype vs. Exemplar