Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Modeling the Functional Network for Spatial Navigation in the Human Brain
Published on: October 13, 2023
Measuring cognitive distance in the network representations of texts
Stephen Dopkins1, Jesse Sargent
1Psychology Department, The George Washington University, NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA. dopkins@gwu.edu
Abstract:
Pairs of words are identified more quickly as coming from different sentences the further apart the words are in the network representation of their native text. How is the distance between the words measured? According to the network connection hypothesis, the distance between 2 words is the length of the network path between the propositions to which they belong, as measured by a process of spreading activation. According to the location code hypothesis, the distance between 2 words is the difference between codes that record the locations of their propositions in the network representation. The results of 3 experiments supported the network connection hypothesis.
Related Concept Videos
Language and Cognition
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process information is...
Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect
Binet's Contribution to Measures of Intelligence
Distance Problem
The Representativeness Heuristic
