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Updated: Jul 15, 2026
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Published on: May 9, 2019
The reign of typicality in semantic memory
1MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK. patterson@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
Summary
This study shows that typicality effects are crucial in semantic memory processing. These effects are observed in both healthy individuals and those with semantic dementia across various cognitive tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neurobiology
Background:
- Semantic memory processing is influenced by the typicality of representations.
- Semantic dementia selectively impairs conceptual knowledge, highlighting typicality effects.
- Typicality effects are observed in semantic tasks like object naming.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a theoretical framework for semantic memory processing sensitive to typicality.
- To examine typicality effects in semantic dementia and normal participants.
- To investigate the interplay between perceptual and conceptual processing.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical modeling of semantic memory.
- Analysis of cognitive performance in semantic dementia patients.
- Event-related potential (ERP) studies in normal participants during word and object processing.
Main Results:
- Typicality effects are ubiquitous in semantic dementia across semantic and surface-level tasks.
- Surface-domain typicality influences tasks like lexical decision and word reading.
- Early-emerging typicality effects in normal participants suggest interactive processing.
Conclusions:
- Perceptual and conceptual processing exist on an interactive continuum.
- Typicality effects are fundamental throughout the processing continuum.
- The theoretical framework accounts for typicality's role in semantic memory and related disorders.
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