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At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

Specialization and semantic organization: evidence for multiple semantics linked to sensory modalities.

The present article reviews the case for multiple systems in semantic memory and empirically evaluates a multiple semantics proposal based on sensory modalities. In the experiments, a conceptual switching cost paradigm was used (Pecher, Zeelenberg, & Barsalou, 2003), in which participants verified properties for concepts and verification time was compared for target trials (e.g., a dog can bark) that were preceded by context trials of either the same or a different modality (e.g., a bee can buzz or a horse can have spots). Experiment 1 involved a modality switch while controlling for the concept's category and demonstrated that when modalities were switched, a processing cost was incurred that could not be attributed to the latter dimension. Experiment 2 further supported this conclusion by showing that, in a reverse situation, the cost incurred when category was switched was at least smaller. The results are discussed by considering possible alternative amodal explanations and other data that have shown the influence of sensory information in conceptual processing.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

[Semantics of psychopathological expressions. 2. Productive interpretation and narrative semantics in delirious expressions].

The second part of "The semantics of psychopathological statements" concerns delirious utterances. The relations between the utterance act and the statements implicity constitute the delirium in the operational texture of the psychopathological process. Only the productive interpretation can relate the links between the diegetic elements of the utterance to the ensuing reading effects the words of which diachronically constitute a delusion. The meaning effects of the clinical statements, i.e. the symptoms and their narration have recurring repercussions on the semantics of the delirium process.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Analysis of the semantic structures of medical reference languages: part 2. Analysis of the semantic power of MeSH, ICD and SNOMED.

Three medical reference languages, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED), were compared through an analysis of their structures. They were found to differ in the degrees of complexity and specificity of meaning that they could convey. This variation in semantic power has been correlated with their different functions.

Classification↗
PubMed1994

Semantic memory and the granularity of semantic relations: evidence from speed-accuracy decomposition.

In the present study we examined whether semantic relations are atomistic unitary associations, or are complex concepts consisting of a number of relational elements. The complexity of the ownership relation was assessed by combining a relation verification task ("Many people own [cars/comets]") with the speed-accuracy decomposition procedure (Meyer, Irwin, Osman, & Kounios, 1988). The latter permits one to determine whether subjects achieve their final state of response accuracy in a single, discrete all-or-none transition, or whether the relevant processes yield partial information representing intermediate states of knowledge. The rationale was that the retrieval of a unitary relational link from a classical associative network should be an all-or-none affair. In contrast, a set of relational elements need not be processed as a unitary bundle, thereby allowing partial response-information states. In two experiments, we found evidence of such partial information (i.e., sensitivity in units of d'), lending support to the notion that relations are complex. Furthermore, the results suggest that the accumulation of guessing sensitivity was linear over time, weighing against alternate theoretical interpretations.

Humans↗
PubMed1997

Semantic quality through semantic definition: refining the Read Codes through internal consistency.

Checks of internal consistency in controlled medical vocabularies facilitate their development and assist refinement of the underlying terminological model. Two simple checks of consistency between knowledge in the subtype hierarchy and that in semantic definitions of concepts are described. It is proposed that these checks are a helpful adjunct to, but not a replacement for, large-scale involvement of domain experts in construction of controlled vocabularies.

Classification↗
PubMed2002

Causal conditional reasoning and semantic memory retrieval: a test of the semantic memory framework.

This study tested and refined a framework that proposes a mechanism for retrieving alternative causes and disabling conditions (Cummins, 1995) during reasoning. Experiment 1 examined the relation between different factors affecting retrieval. The test revealed high correlations between the number of possible alternative causes or disabling conditions and their strength of association and plausibility. Experiment 2 explored the hypothesis that due to a more extended search process, conditional inferences would last longer when many alternative causes or disabling conditions were available. Affirmation of the consequent (AC) and modus ponens (MP) latencies showed the hypothesized pattern. Denial of the antecedent (DA) and modus tollens (MT) inferences did not show latency effects. The experiment also identified an effect of the number of disabling conditions on AC and DA acceptance. Experiment 3 measured efficiency of disabler retrieval by a limited time, disabler generation task. As predicted, better disabler retrieval was related to lower acceptance of the MP and MT inferences.

Humans↗