On the continuity of thought and the representation of knowledge: Electrophysiological and behavioral time-course measures reveal levels of structure in semantic memory

Abstract

Time-course studies of semantic verification are reviewed, discussed, and reinterpreted with the aim of drawing general theoretical conclusions about semantic memory structure. These reaction time, speed-accuracy tradeoff, speed-accuracy decomposition, and event-related (brain) potential (ERP) studies suggest that semantic memory is structured on at least three levels. In particular, specific models of the intermediate (macrostructural) level are discussed and compared. ERP investigations of this level suggest that context-independent and context-dependent types of semantic information are potentially isolable and analyzable.