The Representation of Knowledge

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I. Centrality of Meaning in Memory

Anderson--asked subjects to recall the final sentence of a story; in immediate recall, verbatim and logical recall were about the same; in delayed, verbatim recall was significantly worse; we tend to memorize the gist or meaning of something in long-term memory

II. Theories of Semantic Memory

A. Semantic Networks

Collins and Quillion--semantic network, type of knowledge based on hierarchical structure (categories); directly associated properties should be accessed quicker than inherited traits

spreading activation model--subcategory of semantic network model; semantic priming; as activation level for doctor increases, it spreads to related nodes in correlation with the strength of the relationship, then requires less input for nurse to be accessed

B. Set-Theoretical Model

C. Semantic Feature Comparison Model

D. Schemas, Scripts and Event Concepts

schemas--organized knowledge structures that represent information about objects and concepts and are used to generate inferences

scripts--schemas for event that unfold in stereotypical ways

Brewer and Treyens--used normative analyses for an office to set up and experimental office; subjects sat in it for a while and then left and were asked to recall what they saw in there; were likely to remember the typical objects, falsely remember typical objects that were not there, and did not remember atypical objects

Bower, Turner, and Black-- normative analysis for restaurant script; given short story about going to a restaurant and asked to recall what happened in the story; bias to recall missing normal details and to recall items in script order even if the story didn't present them that way

Bartlett--reconstructive memory; schemas and scripts help us to remember things but may create false memories