Interference theory#Retroactive interference

Mental block

Semantic memory


Semantic Memory The essence of semantic memory is that its contents are not tied to any particular instance of experience, as in episodic memory. Instead, what is stored in semantic memory is the "gist" of experience, an abstract structure that applies to a wide variety of experiential objects and delineates categorical and functional relationships between such objects.[17] Thus, a complete theory of semantic memory must account not only for the representational structure of such "gists", but also for how they can be extracted from experience. Semantic memory is defined as storing memories to recall concepts, word meaning, and general knowledge of the world (Baddeley, 2009).One of the techniques that can be used to help recall these concepts and meanings is known as semantic relatedness. Since people do not have a conscious recollection when retrieving general knowledge, semantic relatedness helps the person recall memories and observations by remembering a concept as part of a category of similar knowledge (McRae, Khalkhali, & Hare, 2012). Medial temporal lobes are a necessity to the creation of new memories(Schater,2000). Semantic memory has a various amount of concepts that are stored to recall memories. Collins and Quilan created the first hierarchial network model, which assumed that semantic memory comes from this model: the assumption was made that semantic memory is organized into a series of hierarchal networks, and that the general public stores ideas about the world into a series of networks(Baddeley, 2009). The basis of needs are ranked from most to least important information to recall. The most important information is stored at the top of the hierarchy for easy accessibility(Baddeley,2009). The spreading activation model is based on people's senses when it comes to an idea because when this idea enters the brain, the appropriate node is activated and it becomes a stronger connection (Baddeley, 2009). A stronger connection is made when the ideas are closely related to each other; due to the flexibility of this model it is generally more successful in explaining semantic memory (Baddeley, 2009). The belief that each concept in semantic memory is expressed by a single node is a limitation of this model. In this model there are three levels of significance: the highest level is the subordinate level (consists of a higher level of categorical knowledge), the second level on the hierarchical scale is an intermediate level (consists of basic levels of categorical knowledge), and the lowest level is the most basic level of categorical knowledge (Baddeley, 2009). An example of a subordinate hierarchy level would be an item of furniture such as a sofa. The intermediate level would be a chair and the lowest level would be a very simple chair. Another model used to explain semantic memory is the Hubs and Spokes model which describes in detail about sensory and motor processing occurrences. The spokes of the model are where motor and sensory processing occurs (Baddeley, 2009). A hub is the representation of an idea that gives an effective way of incorporating knowledge of all types into the temporal lobe.(Baddeley, 2009)

Endel Tulving  proposed in 1972 that declarative memory is made up of two different memory departments: each of the memory departments have clear-cut purposes, intellect, passages and neurological positions in the brain ("Semantic," 2008). He discovered that semantic memory is independent of contexts ("Semantic," 2008). The study of lexical access and category judgement assignments lead to the building upon of network model and communicates how the parts of semantic facts are arranged in semantic memory ("Semantic," 2008). This can be implied in a hierarchical network model because lower level categories have to rely on higher level categories to be able to access information ("Semantic," 2008). For example, a robin has to be thought of first to then be recognized and categorized as a bird. However there are other models that do not consider semantic memory to consist of hierarchical levels ("Semantic," 2008). These other models do recognize though that concepts are closely related to each other. Such models are connectionist models ("Semantic," 2008). Connectionist models express that networks concerning semantic memory are vastly circulated, but they are still a single system with several components that are in a large part corresponding with each other.("Semantic", 2008) 







References Baddeley, A., Eysenck, M., & Anderson, M. (2009). Semantic Memory and stored knowledge. In

Memory (Second ed., pp. 166-180). Hove [England]: Psychology Press.

McRae, K., Khalkhali, S., & Hare, M. (2012). Semantic and associative relations in adolescents and young adults: Examining a tenuous dichotomy. In V. F. Reyna, S. B. Chapman, M. R. Dougherty, J. Confrey, V. F. Reyna, S. B. Chapman, ... J. Confrey (Eds.) , The adolescent brain:

Learning, reasoning, and decision making (pp. 39-66). Washington, DC, US: American
Psychological Association. 

Schacter, D. L. (2000). Memory: Memory systems. In A. E. Kazdin, A. E. Kazdin (Eds.) , Encyclopedia of psychology, Vol. 5 (pp. 169-172). Washington, DC, US; New York, NY, US: American Psychological Association. "Semantic Memory." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008. Retrieved

December 14, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com:  http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045302403.html