The Role of Repetition and Associative Interference in New Semantic Learning in Amnesia: A Case Experiment

The question of whether globally amnesic subjects can learn new semantic (factual) information is controversial. Some students of amnesia believe that they can, others that they cannot. In this article we report an extensive experiment conducted with the amnesic patient K.C. in which we examined the role of repetition and associative interference in his learning of new semantic information. In the course of 8 study sessions distributed over 4 weeks, we taught K.C. novel, amusing definitions of 96 target words (e.g., “a talkative featherbrain—PARAKEET”). We varied systematically the degree of both pre-experimental and intraexperimental associative interference, as well as the amount of study. The results of the experiment showed that K.C. can learn new semantic knowledge, and retain it over a period as long as 30 months indistinguishably from control subjects. The results further showed that the efficacy of such learning depends critically on both repetition of the material and the absence, or minimization, of pre-experimental and intraexperimental associative interference. These findings suggest that the extent to which at least some amnesic patients can acquire and retain new semantic knowledge depends on the conditions under which learning occurs, and that unqualified statements regarding the deficiency or absence of such learning in amnesia are not justified.

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Population Control (Review Article)

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v1i3pp.89-98 ◽

1961 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 89-98

Author(s):

Karol J. Krotki

Keyword(s):

Population Control ◽

Review Article ◽

Small Enterprise ◽

Opportunity Costs ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Factual Information ◽

Undue Influence ◽

Clear Cut ◽

Economic Considerations

Discussions about the role of small enterprise in economic development tend to remain inconclusive partly because of the difficulty of assessing the relative importance of economic and non-economic objectives and partly because of the dearth of factual information on which to base an economic calculus. It is probably true, moreover, that, because of a lack of general agreement as to the economic case for or against small enterprise, non-economic considerations, including some merely romantic attitudes toward smallness and bigness, tend to exert an undue influence on public policies. There may, of course, be no clear-cut economic case. And noneconomic considerations should and will inevitably weigh significantly in policy decisions. If, however, some of the economic questions could be settled by more and better knowledge, these decisions could more accurately reflect the opportunity costs of pursuing non-economic objectives.

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Temperature, Mitochondria, and Reye's Syndrome

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.71.6.985a ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 71 (6) ◽

pp. 985-986

Author(s):

R. DON BROWN ◽

JOHN T. WILSON

Keyword(s):

Mitochondrial Damage ◽

Reye's Syndrome ◽

Enhancing Effect ◽

Control Subjects ◽

Epidemiologic Data ◽

Higher Temperature ◽

And Control

In Reply.— El-Mallakh raises hypothetical questions about an enhancing effect of fever on mitochondrial damage associated with Reye's syndrome. Our article on aspirin and Reye's syndrome1 emphasized the role of prodromal illness in use of aspirin. Fever was only one of several [See table in the PDF] prodormal illness events that were different in patients as compared with control subjects. Results of our analysis of the epidemiologic data from the Ohio study reveal a statistically significant higher temperature in those children which Reye's syndrome as compared with unmatched control subjects (Table) as well as in patients and control subjects matched for record temperatures.1

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Recognition and its Impairment regarding Autobiographical Memories in a Patient with Hippocampal Amnesia

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.101.3.796-802 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 101 (3) ◽

pp. 796-802

Author(s):

Mikio Hirano ◽

Toshihiko Kikuchi ◽

Ayumu Goukon ◽

Kazuhito Noguchi ◽

Toru Hosokawa

Keyword(s):

Frontal Lobe ◽

Male Patient ◽

Semantic Information ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Amnesic Patient ◽

Frontal Lobe Dysfunction ◽

Autobiographical Memories ◽

Before And After

Autobiographical memories of one case (Y.K.) were assessed before and after onset of hippocampal amnesia. He was a 56-yr.-old male patient who used to work in an office. The findings can be described as follows. First, Y.K.‘s recognition performance regarding his premorbid and postmorbid personal semantics along with premorbid autobiographical incidents was significantly greater than chance, and recognition of premorbid autobiographical incidents was within chance. Given information before onset, a relationship was suspected between frontal lobe dysfunction and Y.K.‘s autobiographical problem. The possibility that an amnesic patient could acquire semantic information after onset is discussed.

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Frequency distributions of punctuation marks in English

English Today ◽

10.1017/s0266078418000512 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 23-35

Author(s):

Kun Sun ◽

Rong Wang

Keyword(s):

Semantic Information ◽

Written Language ◽

Writing Systems ◽

Frequency Distributions ◽

Textual Structure ◽

Syntactic Relations

The analysis of punctuation in philology is mainly carried out with a view to better understand the meaning of the literature concerned. Punctuation is generally believed to play the role of ‘assisting the written language in indicating those elements of speech that cannot be conveniently set down on paper: chiefly the pause, pitch and stress in speech’ (Markwardt, 1942: 156). Most of us often ignore the importance of punctuation in writing systems and tend to believe that punctuation only depends on tradition and the personal styles of writers. In fact, punctuation marks may contribute significantly to the clarity of expression. Many linguists associate punctuation with intonation, but the truth is more complex than that – punctuation marks may affect orthography, morphology, syntactic relations, semantic information, and can even influence textual structure.

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The Role of Co‐Occurrence Statistics in Developing Semantic Knowledge

Cognitive Science ◽

10.1111/cogs.12894 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 44 (9) ◽

Author(s):

Layla Unger ◽

Catarina Vales ◽

Anna V. Fisher

Keyword(s):

Semantic Knowledge

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Rapid, Experience-Related Changes in the Organization of Children’s Semantic Knowledge

10.31234/osf.io/nv3fk ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Layla Unger ◽

Anna Fisher

Keyword(s):

Learning Experiences ◽

Semantic Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Organization ◽

Control School ◽

School Based ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

Rapid Changes ◽

Taxonomic Organization ◽

Post Test

The organization of knowledge according to relations between concepts is crucially important for many cognitive processes, and its emergence during childhood is a key focus of cognitive development research. Prior evidence about the role of learning and experience in the development of knowledge organization primarily comes from studies investigating naturally-occurring group differenes (such as children from rural vs. ubran settings, or children who own a pet vs. children who don’t). However, we know little about whether knowledge organization can be relatively rapidly molded by shorter-term learning experiences (e.g., on a time-scale of days vs. months and years). The present study investigated whether learning experiences can drive rapid, measurable changes in knowledge organization in children by investigating the effects of a week-long Zoo summer camp (compared to a control school-based camp) on the degree to which 4- to 9-year-old children’s knowledge about animals was organized according to taxonomic relations. Although there were no differences in taxonomic organization between the Zoo and the school-based camp at pre-test, only children who participated in the Zoo camp showed increases in taxonomic organization at post-test. These findings provide novel evidence that experiences can drive rapid changes in knowledge organization.

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Rapid, Experience-Related Changes in the Organization of Children’s Semantic Knowledge

10.31234/osf.io/xmeu8 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Layla Unger ◽

Anna Fisher

Keyword(s):

Learning Experiences ◽

Semantic Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Organization ◽

Control School ◽

School Based ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

Rapid Changes ◽

Taxonomic Organization ◽

Post Test

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Noospheric lines in the document studies

Scientific and Technical Libraries ◽

10.33186/1027-3689-2018-9-92-105 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 92-105

Author(s):

Galina Shvetsova-Vodka

Keyword(s):

Semantic Information ◽

Modern Society ◽

Information Modeling ◽

Library Studies ◽

Definition Of

The author examines the concept of noosphere as applied in the document studies. In 1990ies, Kim Gelman-Vinogradov used in the document studies and introduced the concepts of the ‘noospheric document environment’ and noospheric document memory’. The author also demonstrates how Gelman-Vingradov’s ideas are related with A. V. Sokolov’s interpretation of documentosphere and definition of the document. The concept of nooinformation is examined as applied to the works by Yury Stolyarov and Roman Moltulsky, along with its relation to the documents as the object of library studies and to the concept of social (semantic) information. In the works of bibliography theorists: Galina Gordukalova, V. Fokeev, Alexandra Kumanova, the concept of noosphere is used to characterize document flows, document information, information modeling, and bibliographic compression of information. Arkady Sokolov’s proposal to develop noospherology, and his idea of the libraries; role in promoting the noospheric future and educating homo noospheric, is examined. The author also suggests that the noospheric approach will become a methodological instrument in documentospheric knowledge and will be of practical use for defining the role of libraries in the modern society.

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Thematic object pairs produce stronger and faster perceptual grouping than taxonomic pairs

10.31234/osf.io/6u3sn ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph Nah ◽

Joy Geng

Keyword(s):

Visual Processing ◽

Perceptual Grouping ◽

Semantic Information ◽

Semantic Knowledge ◽

Perceptual Unit ◽

Critical Difference ◽

Common Event ◽

Taxonomic Relationships ◽

Different Types ◽

Fundamental Units

While objects are fundamental units of vision that convey meaning, how different types of semantic knowledge affect perception is not fully understood. In contrast, the concept literature divides semantic information into taxonomic and thematic types. Taxonomic relationships reflect categorization by similarities (e.g., dog – wolf); thematic groups are based on complementary relationships shared within a common event (e.g., swimsuit – goggles; pool). A critical difference between these two information types is that thematic relationships are learned from the experienced co-occurrence of objects whereas taxonomic relationships are learned abstractly. In two studies, we test the hypothesis that visual processing of thematically related objects is more rapid because they serve as mutual visual primes and form a perceptual unit. The results demonstrate that learned co-occurrence not only shapes semantic knowledge, but also affects low level visual processing, revealing a link between how information is acquired (e.g., experienced vs. unobserved) and how it modulates perception.

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