Semantic Cognition

This groundbreaking monograph offers a mechanistic theory of the
representation and use of semantic knowledge, integrating the strengths and
overcoming many of the weaknesses of hierarchical, categorization-based approaches,
similarity-based approaches, and the approach often called "theory theory." Building
on earlier models by Geoffrey Hinton in the 1980s and David Rumelhart in the early
1990s, the authors propose that performance in semantic tasks arises through the
propagation of graded signals in a system of interconnected processing units. The
representations used in performing these tasks are patterns of activation across
units, governed by weighted connections among them. Semantic knowledge is acquired
through the gradual adjustment of the strengths of these connections in the course
of day-to-day experience.The authors show how a simple computational model proposed
by Rumelhart exhibits a progressive differentiation of conceptual knowledge,
paralleling aspects of cognitive development seen in the work of Frank Keil and Jean
Mandler. The authors extend the model to address aspects of conceptual knowledge
acquisition in infancy, disintegration of conceptual knowledge in dementia,
"basic-level" effects and their interaction with expertise, and many findings
introduced to support the idea that semantic cognition is guided by naive,
domain-specific theories.