Building semantic memory from embodied and distributional language experience

10.31234/osf.io/wymr9 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Charles P. Davis ◽

Eiling Yee

Keyword(s):

Semantic Memory ◽

Embodied Experience ◽

Linguistic Processing ◽

Language Experience ◽

Hybrid Approaches ◽

Common Framework ◽

Statistical Regularities ◽

Concept Representations ◽

Perceptual Systems

Humans seamlessly make sense of a rapidly changing environment, using a seemingly limitless knowledgebase to recognize and adapt to most situations we encounter. This knowledgebase is called semantic memory. Embodied cognition theories suggest that we represent this knowledge through simulation: understanding the meaning of coffee entails re-instantiating the neural states involved in touching, smelling, seeing, and drinking coffee. Distributional semantic theories suggest that we are sensitive to statistical regularities in natural language, and that a cognitive mechanism picks up on these regularities and transforms them into usable semantic representations reflecting the contextual usage of language. These appear to present contrasting views on semantic memory, but do they? Recent years have seen a push toward combining these approaches under a common framework. These hybrid approaches augment our understanding of semantic memory in important ways, but current versions remain unsatisfactory in part because they treat sensory-perceptual and distributional-linguistic data as interacting but distinct types of data that must be combined. We synthesize several approaches which, taken together, suggest that linguistic and embodied experience should instead be considered as inseparably entangled: just as sensory and perceptual systems are reactivated to understand meaning, so are experience-based representations endemic to linguistic processing; further, sensory-perceptual experience is susceptible to the same distributional principles as language experience. This conclusion produces a characterization of semantic memory that accounts for the interdependencies between linguistic and embodied data that arise across multiple timescales, giving rise to concept representations that reflect our shared and unique experiences.

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Neural Basis of Semantic Memory

10.1017/cbo9780511544965 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Keyword(s):

Semantic Memory ◽

Neural Basis

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Wechsler Memory Scale, Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test, and Everyday Memory Questionnaire in Healthy Adults and Alzheimer Patients

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027//1015-5759.18.1.63 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 63-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Anastasia Efklides ◽

Efterpi Yiultsi ◽

Theopisti Kangellidou ◽

Fotini Kounti ◽

Fotini Dina ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Memory ◽

Semantic Memory ◽

Memory Test ◽

Healthy Adults ◽

Gender Effects ◽

Everyday Memory ◽

Wechsler Memory Scale ◽

Everyday Memory Questionnaire ◽

Behavioral Memory ◽

Memory Questionnaire

Summary: The Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) is a laboratory-based memory test that has been criticized for its lack of ecological validity and for not testing long-term memory. A more recent memory test, which aims at testing everyday memory, is the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test (RBMT); it tests prospective memory and other forms of memory not tapped by WMS. However, even this test does not capture all aspects of everyday memory problems often reported by adults. These problems are the object of the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ). This study aimed at identifying the relationships between these three memory tests. The differential effect of Alzheimer's disease (AD) on the above relationships was also studied. The sample consisted of 233 healthy adults (20 to 75+ years of age) and 39 AD patients (50 to 75 years of age). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed the following latent factors: Verbal Memory, Visual Reconstruction, Orientation, Message (action embedded in spatial context), Visual Recognition, Spatial Memory, New Learning/Association Forming, Prospective/Episodic Memory, and Metamemory. These first-order factors were further explained by two second-order factors: Semantic Memory and Coordination of Semantic and Visuo-Spatial Memory. This basic structure was preserved in the sample of AD patients, although AD patients performed less well on the WMS and the RBMT. Some interesting findings regarding semantic memory, face recognition, and metamemory in AD patients are also reported. Age, education, but no gender effects on memory performance were also detected.

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