Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-sd5qd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-10T04:01:46.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Truth be told” – Semantic memory as the scaffold for veridical communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2018

Brett K. Hayes ,
Siddharth Ramanan  and
Muireann Irish
Brett K. Hayes
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. b.hayes@unsw.edu.au http://www.psy.unsw.edu.au/contacts-people/academic-staff/professor-brett-hayes
Siddharth Ramanan
Affiliation:
Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia. siddharth.ramanan@sydney.edu.au muireann.irish@sydney.edu.au http://www.ccd.edu.au/people/profile.php?memberID=1492 https://www.ccd.edu.au/people/profile.php?memberID=683 School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia. Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Muireann Irish
Affiliation:
Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia. siddharth.ramanan@sydney.edu.au muireann.irish@sydney.edu.au http://www.ccd.edu.au/people/profile.php?memberID=1492 https://www.ccd.edu.au/people/profile.php?memberID=683 School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia. Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Theoretical accounts placing episodic memory as central to constructive and communicative functions neglect the role of semantic memory. We argue that the decontextualized nature of semantic schemas largely supersedes the computational bottleneck and error-prone nature of episodic memory. Rather, neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence of episodic-semantic interactions suggest that an integrative framework more accurately captures the mechanisms underpinning social communication.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alba, J. W. & Hasher, W. L. (1983) Is memory schematic? Psychological Bulletin 93(2):203–31. Available at: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1983-20271-001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binder, J. R. & Desai, R. H. (2011) The neurobiology of semantic memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15(11):527–36. Available at: doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.10.001.Google Scholar
Binder, J. R., Desai, R. H., Graves, W. W. & Conant, L. L. (2009) Where is the semantic system? A critical review and meta-analyses of 120 functional neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex 19(12):2767–96.Google Scholar
Burianová, H., McIntosh, A. R. & Grady, C. L. (2010) A common functional brain network for autobiographical, episodic, and semantic memory retrieval. NeuroImage 49(1):865–74. Available at: https://doi.org:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.08.066.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, D. L. & Verfaellie, M. (2010) Interdependence of episodic and semantic memory: Evidence from neuropsychology. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 16(5):748–53. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617710000676.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hegdé, J. (2007) Mental time travel sickness and a Bayesian remedy. Brain and Behavioral Sciences 30:323–24.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Addis, D. R., Hodges, J. R. & Piguet, O. (2012a) Considering the role of semantic memory in episodic future thinking: Evidence from semantic dementia. Brain 135(Pt 7):2178–91. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/aws119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irish, M., Addis, D. R., Hodges, J. R. & Piguet, O. (2012b) Exploring the content and quality of episodic future simulations in semantic dementia. Neuropsychologia 50(14):3488–95. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.09.012.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Eyre, N., Dermody, N., O'Callaghan, C., Hodges, J. R., Hornberger, M. & Piguet, O. (2016) Neural substrates of semantic prospection – Evidence from the dementias. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 10:96. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00096.Google Scholar
Irish, M. & Piguet, O. (2013) The pivotal role of semantic memory in remembering the past and imagining the future. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 7:27. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00027.Google Scholar
Irish, M. & Piolino, P. (2016) Impaired capacity for prospection in the dementias – Theoretical and clinical implications. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 55(1):49–68. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12090.Google Scholar
Klein, S. B., Loftus, J. & Kihlstrom, J. F. (2002b) Memory and temporal experience: The effects of episodic memory loss on an amnesic patient's ability to remember the past and imagine the future. Social Cognition 20(5):353–79. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.20.5.353.21125.Google Scholar
Lambon Ralph, M. A., Sage, K., Jones, R. W. & Mayberry, E. J. (2010) Coherent concepts are computed in the anterior temporal lobes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107(6):2717–22. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0907307107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Renoult, L., Davidson, P. S., Palombo, D. J., Moscovitch, M. & Levine, B. (2012) Personal semantics: At the crossroads of semantic and episodic memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16(11):550–58. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.09.003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stewart, N., Chater, N. & Brown, G. D. A. (2006) Decision by sampling. Cognitive Psychology 53:1–26. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2005.10.003.Google Scholar