A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing
TL;DR: The present paper shows how the extended theory can account for results of several production experiments by Loftus, Juola and Atkinson's multiple-category experiment, Conrad's sentence-verification experiments, and several categorization experiments on the effect of semantic relatedness and typicality by Holyoak and Glass, Rips, Shoben, and Smith, and Rosch.
Abstract: This paper presents a spreading-acti vation theory of human semantic processing, which can be applied to a wide range of recent experimental results The theory is based on Quillian's theory of semantic memory search and semantic preparation, or priming In conjunction with this, several of the miscondeptions concerning Qullian's theory are discussed A number of additional assumptions are proposed for his theory in order to apply it to recent experiments The present paper shows how the extended theory can account for results of several production experiments by Loftus, Juola and Atkinson's multiple-category experiment, Conrad's sentence-verification experiments, and several categorization experiments on the effect of semantic relatedness and typicality by Holyoak and Glass, Rips, Shoben, and Smith, and Rosch The paper also provides a critique of the Smith, Shoben, and Rips model for categorization judgments Some years ago, Quillian1 (1962, 1967) proposed a spreading-acti vation theory of human semantic processing that he tried to implement in computer simulations of memory search (Quillian, 1966) and comprehension (Quillian, 1969) The theory viewed memory search as activation spreading from two or more concept nodes in a semantic network until an intersection was found The effects of preparation (or priming) in semantic memory were also explained in terms of spreading activation from the node of the primed concept Rather than a theory to explain data, it was a theory designed to show how to build human semantic structure and processing into a computer
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TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual model of brand equity from the perspective of the individual consumer is presented, which is defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumers' perceptions of the brand.
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TL;DR: The reading span, the number of final words recalled, varied from two to five for 20 college students and was correlated with three reading comprehension measures, including verbal SAT and tests involving fact retrieval and pronominal reference.
6,041 citations
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TL;DR: Experiments in which happy or sad moods were induced in subjects by hyp- notic suggestion to investigate the influence of emo- tions on memory and thinking found that subjects exhibited mood-state-dependent memory in recall of word lists, personal experiences recorded in a daily diary, and childhood experiences.
Abstract: This article describes experiments in which happy or sad moods were induced in subjects by hyp- notic suggestion to investigate the influence of emo- tions on memory and thinking. One result was that subjects exhibited mood-state-dependent memory in recall of word lists, personal experiences recorded in a daily diary, and childhood experiences; people recalled a greater percentage of those experiences that were affectively congruent with the mood they were in dur- ing recall. Second, emotion powerfully influenced such cognitive processes as free associations, imaginative fantasies, social perceptions, and snap judgments about others' personalities (e.g., angry subjects generated an- gry associates, told hostile stories, and were prone to find fault with others). Third, when the feeling-tone of a narrative agreed with the reader's emotion, the salience and memorability of events in that narrative were increased. Thus, sad readers attended more to sad material, identified with a sad character from a story, and recalled more about that character. An associative network theory is proposed to account for these several results. In this theory, an emotion serves as a memory unit that can enter into associations with coincident events. Activation of this emotion unit aids retrieval of events associated with it; it also primes emotional themata for use in free association, fantasies, and per- ceptual categorization.
5,724 citations
Cites background from "A spreading-activation theory of se..."
...Examples of network theories appear in papers or books by Collins and Quillian (1969), Anderson and Bower (1973), Collins and Loftus (1975), and Anderson (1976)....
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TL;DR: The semantic structure of texts can be described both at the local microlevel and at a more global macrolevel, and a model for text comprehension based on this notion accounts for the formation of a coherent semantic text base in terms of a cyclical process constrained by limitations of working memory.
Abstract: The semantic structure of texts can be described both at the local microlevel and at a more global macrolevel A model for text comprehension based on this notion accounts for the formation of a coherent semantic text base in terms of a cyclical process constrained by limitations of working memory Furthermore, the model includes macro-operators, whose purpose is to reduce the information in a text base to its gist, that is, the theoretical macrostructure These operations are under the control of a schema, which is a theoretical formulation of the comprehender's goals The macroprocesses are predictable only when the control schema can be made explicit On the production side, the model is concerned with the generation of recall and summarization protocols This process is partly reproductive and partly constructive, involving the inverse operation of the macro-operators The model is applied to a paragraph from a psychological research report, and methods for the empirical testing of the model are developed
4,800 citations
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TL;DR: When subjects judge whether a test symbol is contained in a short memorized sequence of symbols, their mean reaction-time increases linearly with the length of the sequence, implying the existence of an internal serial-comparison process.
Abstract: When subjects judge whether a test symbol is contained in a short memorized sequence of symbols, their mean reaction-time increases linearly with the length of the sequence. The linearity and slope of the function imply the existence of an internal serial-comparison process whose average rate is between 25 and 30 symbols per second.
3,245 citations
TL;DR: The results of both experiments support a retrieval model involving a dependence between separate successive decisions about whether each of the two strings is a word.
Abstract: Two experiments are reported in which 5s were presented two strings of letters simultaneously, with one string displayed visually above the other. In Exp. I, 5s responded "yes" if both strings were words, otherwise responding "no." In Exp. II, 5s responded "same" if the two strings were either both words or both nonwords, otherwise responding "different." "Yes" responses and "same" responses were faster for pairs of commonly associated words than for pairs of unassociated words. "Same" responses were slowest for pairs of nonwords. "No" responses were faster when the top string in the display was a nonword, whereas "different" responses were faster when the top string was a word. The results of both experiments support a retrieval model involving a dependence between separate successive decisions about whether each of the two strings is a word. Possible mechanisms that underlie this dependence are discussed.
2,781 citations
"A spreading-activation theory of se..." refers background in this paper
...Meyer and Schvaneveldt (Meyer, 1973; Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971; Schvaneveldt & Meyer, 1973; Meyer, Schvaneveldt, & Ruddy, Note 3) have also shown that the time to retrieve information from memory is faster if related information has been accessed a short time previously....
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Book•
31 Oct 1995
TL;DR: The results of a true-false reaction-time task were found to support the hypothesis about memory organization that a canary is a bird and birds can fly.
Abstract: To ascertain the truth of a sentence such as “A canary can fly,” people utilize long-term memory. Consider two possible organizations of this memory. First, people might store with each kind of bird that flies (e.g., canary) the fact that it can fly. Then they could retrieve this fact directly to decide the sentence is true. An alternative organization would be to store only the generalization that birds can fly, and to infer that “A canary can fly” from the stored information that a canary is a bird and birds can fly. The latter organization is much more economical in terms of storage space but should require longer retrieval times when such inferences are necessary. The results of a true-false reaction-time task were found to support the latter hypothesis about memory organization.
2,671 citations
"A spreading-activation theory of se..." refers background or methods in this paper
...This is a statement of the strong theory of cognitive economy, Undoubtedly the Collins and Quillian (1969) paper gave rise to this notion , but the authors cautioned against making that interpretation of the theory....
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...In Collins and Quillian (1969, 1972b) links were assumed to have differential accessibility (i.e., strength or travel time)....
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...In her first experiment, which was like the Collins and Quillian (1969) study, Conrad selected 2-level and 3-level hierarchies from the common culture (e.g., salmon —» fish —» animal) and properties associated with the objects at different levels....
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...In this regard, it is important to distinguish the strong theory of cognitive economy, which Conrad takes issue with in her attack on Collins and Quillian (1969), and the weak theory of cognitive economy, which Collins and Quillian were testing (though they did not spell it out clearly enough)....
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...Collins and Quillian (1969) did obtain subject ratings of importance of the property for the relevant level concept, which should correlate with Conrad's frequency measure....
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TL;DR: In this paper, two possible organizations of long-term memory were proposed: the first one is to store only the generalization that birds can fly, and the second is to infer that a canary is a bird from the stored information that canary can fly.
2,468 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1973TL;DR: In this paper, a theory about human memory, about how a person encodes, retains, and retrieves information from memory, was proposed and tested, based on the HAM theory.
Abstract: Published in 1980, part of the Experimental Psychology series. This book proposes and tests a theory about human memory, about how a person encodes, retains, and retrieves information from memory. This edition contains two major parts. First is the historical analysis of associationism and its countertraditions. This still provides the framework that has been used to relate the current research to an important intellectual tradition. This is reproduced without comment from the original book; historical analyses do not need as rapid revision as theoretical analyses. The second part of the book reproduces the major components of the HAM theory.
2,340 citations
"A spreading-activation theory of se..." refers background in this paper
...Perhaps the most prevalent misinterpretation of Quillian's theory concerns the idea of cognitive economy (Anderson & Bower, 1973; Conrad, 1972)....
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...Anderson and Bower (1973) reject a Quillian-like model of a parallel search, while acknowledging that their data are compatible with "a parallel model whose search rate is slower in proportion to the number of paths that must be searched" (p. 371)....
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