A New Approach to the Study of Human Semantic Memory: Analyzing the Intermediate Products of Rapid Semantic Processes (Cognitive Psychology, Science, Reaction Time, Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff, Information-Processing).

Abstract

Most experimental studies of human semantic memory have used subjects' reaction times to verify different classes of categorical propositions as the main dependent variable. Unfortunately, the data-base provided by such experiments has not proven to be rich enough to allow us to answer certain important theoretical questions about semantic memory. This has led to a proliferation of models based on radically different assumptions. A new experimental procedure called speed-accuracy decomposition is applied toward this problem. This technique permits the analysis of the intermediate products of semantic processing, that is, the partial outputs generated by incomplete processing. Results obtained with this procedure allow us to reject several classes of semantic-memory models. The data from three reported experiments suggest that sentence verification is comprised of two parallel processes that race against each other to determine the response, the first being a memory search yielding a single, discrete output, the other being an algorithmic computation that generates gradually-accumulating response information at a rate that depends upon the type of semantic relation being processed. The implications and prospects for further applications of this procedure are discussed.Ph.D.Experimental psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160813/1/8600475.pd