CHAPTER 8

USING GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

By: 1. Noor Haslinda Binti Mohd Idris MPP141041
2. Nurmayulis@Malina Binti Noordin MP131063
3. Ahmad Shahir Bin Muhamad MPP141042

The Structured Of Semantic

Memory
Semantic Memory :

encyclopedic knowledge, lexical or language

knowledge, conceptual knowledge

(organized knowledge about the world)

Background On Semantic Memory

Category : set of objects that belong
together.
Example : fruit represents a certain category
of food items

Concept : refer to our mental

representations of category

Example : we have a concept of fruit

These inferences allow us to go to beyond the

given information, to expand our knowledge

The Prototype Approach

Prototype : an abstract, idealized example
Prototype Approach :
By personal experiences, we can decide
whether an item belongs to a category by
comparing it with the prototype.
Example : conclude Robin is a bird because it
matches the prototype of bird.

Characteristics of Prototypes
supplied as examples of a category
Example : many people judged robin to be in
the bird category.
judged more quickly after semantic priming
Example : we can see the name of colour
before judging the pair of colours.
Share attributes in a family resemblance
category
Example : many students rated a car as a
most prototypical vehicle.

The Prototype Approach

An object can be categorized at several
different levels.
Level Of Categorization
Superordinatelevel :
more general
categories.

Example :
Furniture,
animal,

Basic-level :
moderately
specific
Example :
Chair,
dog

SubordinateLevel:
more specific
categories
Example :
Desk Chair,
Collie

The Exemplar Approach

First learn some specific examples of a concept
(exemplars)
then classify each new stimulus by deciding how
closely it resembles those specific examples
Example :
1) You read 4 case studies which each case study
described a depressed individual.
2)Then, you read an article that described a womans
psychological problem, but the article does not
specify her disorder.

3) You decide that she fits into the category

depressed person because this description resembles
the characteristics of 4 earlier exemplars.

Network Models and Semantic

Memory

apple

The meaning of a particular

concept depends on the other
concepts to which it is
connected.

1.

Andersons ACT R model

- Attempts to explain a wide variety of

cognitive processes.
- Represents sentences and concepts with
a propositional-network structure

Propositional Network Representing

the sentences :
Ali gave a brown wallet to Ana who
is his wife.

2. PDP -The Parallel Distributed

Processing Approach

Proposes that cognitive processes can

be represented by a model- flows
through networks that link together.

 Example :

1. It starts with a letter c.

2. It is orange.
3. Type of vegetable.
4. Rabbits like it.

Advantage of PDP :
1. Allow us to explain how human memory can
help us when someone information is
missing.

2. Make a default assignment based on

information from other similar people or
objects.

SCHEMAS AND SCRIPTS

Schema generalized knowledge about a

situation, an event or a person

Schema theories are especially helpful

when psychologists try to explain how
people process complex situations and
events.

Background on Schemas and Scripts

Schema theories propose that people

encode generic information about a
situation, then use this information to
understand and remember new examples of
the schema.

A psychology professors office

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Schemas and Memory Selection

If the information describes a minor event
and time is limitedpeople tend to
remember information accurately when it is
consistent with a schema.(e.g., the desk, the
chair)
If the information describes a minor event
and time is limitedpeople do not remember
information that is inconsistent with the
schema. (e.g., the hat, the wine bottle)

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 People seldom create a completely false

memory for a lengthy event that did not
occur
When the information describes a major
event that is inconsistent with the standard
schema, people are likely to remember that
event

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Schemas and Boundary Extension

Boundary extension our tendency to remember
having viewed a greater portion of a scene than was
actually shown
Intraub and colleagues
see photo then draw replica of photo
Participants consistently produced a sketch that
extended the boundaries beyond the view
presented in the original photo
activate a perceptual schema

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 Abstraction a memory process that

stores the meaning of a message but not the
exact words
Verbatim Memory word-for-word recall

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Schemas and Memory Abstraction

1. The Constructive Approach
Bransford and Franks (1971)
listen to sentences from several different
stories
recognition test including new items
people convinced that they had seen
these new items before (false alarm)
false alarms particularly likely for complex
sentences consistent with the original
schema

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2. Pragmatic view of memory

- people pay attention to the aspect of a
message that is most relevant to their current
goals
Murphy and Shapiro (1994)
o correct recognition was higher for
sentences from the sarcastic condition than
for sentences in the bland condition
o more false alarms for paraphrases of bland
sentences than sarcastic sentences
o more accurate in their verbatim memory for
the sarcastic version than for the bland
version
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Schemas and Memory Abstraction

The Current Status of Schemas and Memory
Abstraction
two approaches (Constructive and
Pragmatic) quite compatible

in many cases we integrate information

into large schemas
in some cases we know that specific
words matter and pay close attention to
precise wording
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 Schemas and Inferences in Memory

inferenceslogical interpretations and
conclusions that were not part of the original
stimulus material

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Research on Inferences Based on

Gender Stereotypes
Gender Stereotypes widely shared sets of
beliefs about the characteristics of females and
males
Explicit Memory Task
Dunning and Sherman (1997) read sentences
followed by recognition-memory test "new"
sentences consistent or inconsistent with gender
stereotypes.

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Research on Inferences Based on

Gender Stereotypes (continued)
Implicit Memory Tasks
1. Using neuroscience techniques to assess
gender stereotypes
Osterhout, Bersick and McLaughlin (1997)
ERP technique stereotype consistent
sentences vs. stereotype inconsistent
sentences change in ERPs for stereotypeinconsistent words but not for stereotypeconsistent words

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2. Using the Implicit Association Test to

assess gender stereotypes

Nosek, Banaji, and Greenwald (2002)

Implicit Association Test (IAT)based on
the principle that people can mentally pair
related words together much more easily
than they can pair unrelated words
Stereotype-Consistent pairings (male/math
vs. female/arts)
Stereotype-Inconsistent pairings
(female/math vs. male/arts)

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Conclusions About Schemas

1. We often select material for memory that is
inconsistent with our schemas.
2. We may indeed remember that we saw only
a portion of an object, rather than the
complete object.
3. We frequently recall the exact words of a
passage as it was originally presented.
4. We often avoid making inappropriate
inferences.

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5. We may keep the elements in memory

isolated from each other, rather than
integrated together.
6. When we are recalling information from our
real-life experiencesrather than information
created by researcherswe may be more
accurate.

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