8. A semantic network is simply another organization of semantic memory. In the network model, concepts are nodes and the relationship between nodes is represented in pathways. The relationship can be an “is a (S)” relationship or “has property of (P)” relationship. In the hierarchical network model, concepts are related hierarchically and have subset or superset properties. Another model is the spreading-activation (Collins/Loftus) model, where the length of the pathway actually indicated the degree of semantic relatedness. Spreading activation explains that the length of the pathway indicated the degree of semantic relatedness. We activate the pathways in between to become conscious of that concept. There’s no strict hierarchical categorization – some things are represented twice. This model explains semantic priming – people are faster to verify a word when it is preceded by a semantically related word. This is because our pathways have been previously activated. Other effect?

1. universals are parts that are shared by all languages

- semanticity: it conveys meaning

- arbitraryness: the connection between sound and meaning is arbitrary

- displacement: a word can mean something that is not currently present (like unicorn)

- productivity: we can make an infinite number of sentences from a finite number of components

- of these, displacement and productivity seem to be unique to humans; animals only convey what they need to because they don’t really have the ability of using higher cognitive processes; animals also have a much smaller “vocabulary” with which to work, so productivity might be only for humans, but they could always tack another another quack or bark…so who knows?

2. a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that is perceived or the smallest unit that makes a difference to meaning; we use often use top-down processing to determine phonemes because we use what we already know to fill in the gaps. For example, in the McGurk effect, visual input influences auditory perception. In the video we saw in class, the man was saying “baba,” but his mouth was making the shape of “gaga.” When we watched the man, we thought he said “gaga.” However, when we closed our eyes, we correctly heard “baba.” This is a great example of top-down processing. The visual cues were influencing our perception of the phoneme.