Date of Award
1989
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract
The functional similarity of schematic and categorical organizations of knowledge was investigated by comparing schema importance effects with taxonomic frequency effects. Importance effects refer to better recall of important over unimportant events in schema-based text (descriptions of everyday activities), and taxonomic frequency effects refer to better recall of common over uncommon members of natural categories. Importance effects have been explained in terms of differences in the number of interconnections among elements in the schematic knowledge structure, whereas taxonomic frequency effects have been explained in terms of differences in strength of association between the category and its members. Recognition and recall experiments showed the two effects to be similar, and importance effects to be based primarily on strength of relation between an item and its schema name. These results suggested that schematic and categorical organizations are functionally similar. The results are consistent with association-based theories of memory that do not propose schematic organizations.
Recommended Citation
Khan, Mustaq, "Memorial Effects Of Importance And Taxonomic Frequency In Schematic And Categorical Organizations Of Knowledge" (1989). Digitized Theses. 1841.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/1841