Concepts and Semantic Memory
Title
Concepts and Semantic Memory
Author
Malt, Barbara C.
Research Area
Cognition and Emotions
Topic
Memory
Abstract
Humans accumulate vast amounts of knowledge over the life span. Much work aimed at understanding this knowledge store has been called either concepts or semantic memory research. This essay reviews early research on the nature of concrete concepts (concepts of concrete objects) and their organization in memory. It then raises considerations of abstract and relational concepts and of how action affects representation and vice versa. Additional advances discussed come from statistically based views of semantics, connectionist modeling, and neuroscientific evidence, all showing how distributed sources of information can be integrated to create semantic or conceptual content. Cross‐cultural and cross‐linguistic evidence indicate, though, that models based on evidence from any one cultural or language group may not apply well to others. The essay concludes by arguing that key issues for future research include broadening the kinds of knowledge structures that are studied and clarifying how language and nonlinguistic representations are related.