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The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
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Building semantic memory from embodied and distributional language experience
Charles P Davis1,2, Eiling Yee1,2
1Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science
|February 3, 2021
Summary
Semantic memory integrates embodied and linguistic experiences, challenging the view of these as separate data types. This unified approach explains how our knowledgebase reflects both shared and unique lived experiences.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Semantic memory enables humans to understand and adapt to their environment using a vast knowledgebase.
- Embodied cognition posits knowledge representation through sensory-motor simulation.
- Distributional semantics suggests meaning is derived from statistical patterns in language use.
Purpose of the Study:
- To reconcile seemingly contrasting theories of semantic memory: embodied cognition and distributional semantics.
- To propose a unified framework where linguistic and embodied data are inseparably entangled.
- To develop a more comprehensive model of semantic memory.
Main Methods:
- Synthesizing existing approaches to semantic memory.
- Analyzing the interaction between sensory-perceptual and distributional-linguistic data.
- Proposing a theoretical framework for integrated concept representation.
Main Results:
- Linguistic and embodied experiences are not distinct but fundamentally intertwined in semantic memory.
- Sensory-perceptual systems are reactivated during meaning comprehension, similar to linguistic processing.
- Distributional principles apply to both language and sensory-perceptual experience.
Conclusions:
- A unified view of semantic memory accounts for interdependencies between linguistic and embodied data.
- Concept representations reflect a dynamic interplay of shared and unique experiences.
- This integrated model advances our understanding of how the brain processes meaning.
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