Semantics (psychology)

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Semantics within psychology is the study of how meaning is stored in the mind. Semantic memory is a type of long-term declarative memory that refers to facts or ideas which are not immediately drawn from personal experience. It was first theorized in 1972 by W. Donaldson and Endel Tulving. Tulving employs the word semantic to describe a system of memory that involves “words and verbal symbols, their meanings and referents, the relations between them, and the rules, formulas, or algorithms for influencing them”.[1]

Semantic memory

Further information: Semantic memory

In

predicate calculus
techniques.

Ideasthesia

Ideasthesia is a psychological phenomenon in which activation of concepts evokes sensory experiences.[4]

The relationship between graphemes and colors, also known as grapheme-color synesthesia, is a typical example of ideasthesia. Here, the alphabet's letters are connected to vibrant color experiences. According to studies, the extracted meaning of a stimulus determines the context-dependent perception of color. For instance, depending on the context in which it is presented, an ambiguous stimulus '5' that can be read as either 'S' or '5' will have the color associated with either 'S' or '5'. If it is provided with other numbers, it will be read as "5" and associated with the respective color. If it is presented between letters, it will be recognized as a "S" and associated with the respective synesthetic color.

Psychosemantics

In the 1960s, psychosemantic studies became popular after Charles E. Osgood's massive cross-cultural studies using his semantic differential (SD) method that used thousands of nouns and adjective bipolar scales. A specific form of the SD, Projective Semantics method[5] uses only most common and neutral nouns that correspond to the 7 groups (factors) of adjective-scales most consistently found in cross-cultural studies (Evaluation, Potency, Activity as found by Osgood, and Reality, Organization, Complexity, Limitation as found in other studies). In this method, seven groups of bipolar adjective scales corresponded to seven types of nouns so the method was thought to have the object-scale symmetry (OSS) between the scales and nouns for evaluation using these scales. For example, the nouns corresponding to the listed 7 factors would be: Beauty, Power, Motion, Life, Work, Chaos, Law. Beauty was expected to be assessed unequivocally as “very good” on adjectives of Evaluation-related scales, Life as “very real” on Reality-related scales, etc. However, deviations in this symmetric and very basic matrix might show underlying biases of two types: scales-related bias and objects-related bias. This OSS design meant to increase the sensitivity of the SD method to any semantic biases in responses of people within the same culture and educational background.[6][7]

Prototype theory

Further information: Prototype theory

Another set of concepts related to fuzziness in semantics is based on

Nietzsche, talked about slippages in fixed meanings.[8]

Systems of categories are not objectively out there in the world but are rooted in people's experience. These categories evolve as

embodiment and bodily experience".[9]
A corollary of this is that the conceptual categories (i.e. the lexicon) will not be identical for different cultures, or indeed, for every individual in the same culture. This leads to another debate (see the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis or Eskimo words for snow).

Notes

References

  1. ^ "Semantic Memory | Simply Psychology". www.simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  2. ^ Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135114
  3. ^ Giannini, A. J.; Semiotic and Semantic Implications of "Authenticity", Psychological Reports, 106(2):611–612, 2010
  4. ^ Mroczko-W, A., & Nikoli, D. (2014). Semantic mechanisms may be responsible for developing synesthesia. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00509
  5. PMID 24475048
    .
  6. doi:10.2466/pr0.85.6.533-552
    .
  7. S2CID 4828135
    .
  8. ^ Derrida, J. (2017). Writing and difference. University of Chicago Press.
  9. OCLC 93961754
    .
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