Conveners
Semantic Memory: A Multidimensional System Under Control
- Eleonora Catricalà (ICoN Cognitive Neuroscience center, University School for Advanced Studies, IUSS, Pavia, Italy)
The symposium explores the structure of semantic memory through the lens of multidimensionality, multimodality, and control, integrating theoretical perspectives with empirical evidence.
The first talk investigates how semantic memory is shaped by cumulative linguistic, visual, and auditory experiences. Using distributional semantic models and EEG data, it reveals that modality-specific and...
A central question in cognitive science is how prior knowledge—shaped by experience across modalities—guides the formation and organization of semantic memory. In this talk, I will explore how semantic memory emerges from cumulative linguistic, visual, and auditory experiences. Drawing on distributional semantic models, I will show how structured patterns reflect deeply rooted...
The embodied cognition framework, when applied to concrete concepts, highlights the central role of sensory-motor experience in shaping conceptual knowledge. Empirical evidence supports the idea that concrete concepts are represented across distributed, multimodal brain regions. Extending this framework to abstract concepts suggests that these too are grounded along multiple experiential...
Abstract concepts (e.g., fantasy, republic), although not dichotomously opposed to concrete concepts (e.g., hammer, cherry), differ from them in the weight of many semantic dimensions – for abstract concepts, the linguistic, inner, and social experience weigh more than the sensorimotor one. Recent literature has highlighted the need to identify various subkinds of abstract concepts, from...
Control processes play a fundamental role in everyday life, guiding the activation of semantic representations and supporting the retrieval of task-relevant information to enable appropriate inferences. A growing body of research suggests that semantic control (SC)—control processes specific to the semantic domain—interacts with broader executive functions (EF), which govern goal-directed...
