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Insights Into Knowledge Representation: The Influence of Amodal and Perceptual Variables on Event Knowledge Retrieval From Memory
Author(s) -
Raisig Susanne,
Welke Tinka,
Hagendorf Herbert,
Van Der Meer Elke
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01044.x
Subject(s) - amodal perception , perception , associative property , cognitive psychology , embodied cognition , psychology , cognition , mental representation , semantic memory , event (particle physics) , representation (politics) , association (psychology) , computer science , cognitive science , artificial intelligence , mathematics , neuroscience , physics , quantum mechanics , politics , political science , pure mathematics , law , psychotherapist
Event sequences or scripts are the conceptual representations of activities in memory. Traditional views hold that events are represented in amodal networks and are retrieved by associative strategies. The embodied cognition approach holds that knowledge is grounded in perception and retrieved by mental simulation. We used a script generation task where event sequences of activities had to be produced. Activities varied in their degree of familiarity. In a regressional design we investigated whether amodal or perceptual variables best predicted knowledge retrieval to gain insight into the underlying representation. Retrieval depended on the familiarity of the activity. While novel activities mainly relied on perception‐based simulation and to a lesser extent on associative strategies, moderately familiar activities showed the opposite pattern, and events of familiar activities were retrieved by association alone. We conclude that amodal structures exist in all representations that become stronger with increasing frequency and finally prevail over perceptual structures.