Semantic memory: what is it and how to develop it?
Think what you say and say what you think. We do both thanks to semantic memory. And depending on how it is developed, we can stop in time in our judgments or, conversely, convince anyone that we are right.
What it is?
The definition comes from the Greek semantikos, which translates as "designating". Semantic memory stores our knowledge of words, rules of etiquette and behavior, concepts of a particular object, action, and so on. First of all, we need it in order to use language and speech. In general, the concept of semantic memory in psychology began to be widely used a little over half a century ago.
In the late sixties, this term was introduced into science by the American psychologist Michael Ross Quillian. And in 1972, his Canadian colleague with Estonian roots, Endel Tulving, isolated from semantic memory, which, according to his theory, is responsible for storing data, another type - episodic memory, which stores memories of events.
But anyway it is a kind of chain of knowledge that is formed from words, any other verbal symbols, concepts about meanings and their relationships, as well as our ability to apply all this in life. That is, our "piggy bank" called "semantic memory" stores not only words and sentences, but also images of these words, ideas about them, concepts of whole life situations, for example, the basics of etiquette or knowledge of elementary safety rules, understanding of our location (maps and diagrams are "stacked" next to the words about them). Thus, it is semantic memory that affects how we understand this or that event in our life in particular and in society as a whole, allows us to find or not find mutual understanding with other people.
In psychology, it is believed that the semantic load is distributed as follows. Our concepts of objects, plants, animals, buildings, that is, about everything that we can see, are stored in the "visual department". The skills of using tools, the ability to perform any actions live in another, motor, part of the brain. It is quite understandable why some scholars consider semantic memory to be autobiographical... After all, each of us can have our own personal idea about anything, and this is due to what knowledge, concepts, actions we remember, perhaps even in childhood.
When we resort to the help of this memory, we often do not even think about it, although it works diligently when we have a conversation, read, solve some problem. After all, everyone knows that twice two is four, there is nothing to think about.
Difference from episodic
First there was the word, and then the deed. So it is with memory. According to some studies, semantic memory appears in our childhood, when we simply learn some facts, then, gaining our own life experience, we begin to "postpone" it in episodic memory. In any case, the development of both depends on many factors, thanks to which we can receive, process and reproduce information. And here again it is worth paying attention to the separation of semantic and episodic memory.
- Semantic ready to receive new knowledge... But the already accumulated knowledge, as well as our attitude towards it, practically does not change. Everyone knows that the sea water is salty, and the stars are in the sky.
- Episodic memory stores data about what we experienced ourselves or saw with our own eyes. The same starfall or star performance.
Meanwhile one cannot exist without the other. Remembering the last concert, we first turn to the semantic part of our memory, it will tell us general words and phrases describing what we saw, and then we will connect the episodic one, which will clarify our personal attitude to what happened, we will try to recreate the picture we need, as if it is happening right now ... But do not forget that, unlike the semantic one, it is highly subject to change. Any of our new knowledge can affect the attitude to what is happening. Yesterday you were delighted with this artist, and today you learned that he is a criminal, it is unlikely that the next time you will talk about how he sang, with the same breath and delight as before.
And here data stored in semantic memory cannot be changed. The earth is round, the sky is blue, the sea is deep, the dog barks, the caravan moves on. Semantic memory has one more feature.
More often than not, she moves from the general to the particular. For example, with the word "fruit" it gives the following - "sweet", "apple". Although the inhabitants of Asian countries, most likely, instead of a fruit from our garden, the image of a mango appeared, for example.
Forgetting in semantic memory
As semantic and episodic memory receive information in different ways, they also lose it in their own way.
- As for the first, then problems with her are mainly reduced to what is called "spinning on the tongue." We know exactly what we want to say, but we just can't remember the right word, concept, name. Or we know the artist's name for sure, but we just can't remember to say it out loud. But as soon as we mention the name of his first wife, the name of the first song, it is worth sounding a few notes from his hit, then both the name and surname of the star emerge from the subcortex. The same is with the celestial stars - you forgot something from the astronomy lesson, but just thought about how you walked under the moon, and immediately remembered the information you need at the moment.
- Episodic memory sometimes, without our permission, erases certain memories from our life, or, conversely, stores information about an event that is long overdue for us to forget. The answer to the question of why this is happening is sought by the brightest minds of mankind. Only one thing is known for sure - episodic memory is mobile, sometimes it gives us memories from distant childhood, sometimes it cannot find data about the last month.
All this is purely individual and depends on the value and importance of the moment, the abilities of our memory, and of all its types, and much more.
