Question

Allan Collins and Ross Quillian did an experiment measuring people's reaction times to true/false questions about birds. They found that statements more specific to the bird in question (e.g. "Canaries sing") took less time to answer than more general statements (e.g. "Canaries have skin"). This distribution of reaction times suggests that humans organize declarative knowledge using:

a) Semantic networks
b) Procedural memory
c) Episodic memory
d) Iconic memory

Answer 1

The experiment conducted by Allan Collins and Ross Quillian indicates that declarative knowledge is organized in semantic networks, where specific information can be accessed faster due to spreading activation.

Step-by-step explanation:

Allan Collins and Ross Quillian did an experiment measuring people's reaction times to true/false questions about birds. They discovered that specific statements about a bird (e.g., "Canaries sing") were answered more quickly than more general statements (e.g., "Canaries have skin"). This difference in reaction times reveals that human declarative knowledge is likely organized in semantic networks. Semantic networks are cognitive structures that represent relationships between concepts in a network, enabling easier and faster access to related information due to a process called spreading activation. This phenomenon occurs when activating one part of the semantic network makes it easier to access other related concepts because they are already partially activated.

Applying the information provided: to the question, the distribution of reaction times suggests that humans organize declarative knowledge using option a) Semantic networks.