Spreading activation or spooky action at a distance?
How do preexisting connections among a word's associates facilitate its cued recall and recognition? A spreading-activation model assumes activation spreads to, among, and from a studied word's associates, and that its return is what strengthens its representation. An activation-at-a-distance model assumes strengthening is produced by the synchronous activation of the word's associates. The spread model predicts that connections among the studied word's associates will have a greater effect on memory when more of its associates return activation. The distance model predicts that total connections are important, not their direction. The results of cued recall experiments supported the distance model in showing that that connections among the associates facilitated recall regardless of the number of returning connections.
Nelson
Douglas L
DL
Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa 33620-8200, USA. dnelson2@chuma1.cas.usf.edu
McEvoy
Cathy L
CL
Pointer
Lisa
L
D000328:Adult; D001244:Association; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011897:Random Allocation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014936:Word Association Tests