Semantic memory: complexity or connectivity?

• Published in: Memory & cognition Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 192 - 210
• Main Authors: Kroll, N E, Klimesch, W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Psychonomic Society 01-03-1992; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Cognition & reasoning; Communication disorders; Concept Formation; Connectivity; Female; Humans; Hypotheses; Male; Memory; Mental Recall; Paired-Associate Learning; Psycholinguistics; Semantics; Social research
• ISSN: 0090-502X; 1532-5946
• DOI: 10.3758/BF03197168

The complexity hypothesis predicts that concept-feature verification times should be directly related to the number of features associated with a concept (the fan effect). Conversely, the connectivity hypothesis predicts that for interconnected semantic relationships, this verification time should be inversely related to the number of closely associated features (the reversed fan effect). In the present experiments, although the time required for episodic recognition memory decisions tended to be directly related to the number of features associated with a concept, semantic verification times were inversely related to the complexity of the concept. In addition, the concept's complexity was at least as good a predictor of performance in semantic tasks as was the strength of association between the concept and feature. Both of these results are interpreted in terms of the connectivity hypothesis.