SEMANTIC MEMORY AND ALZHIEMER'S DISEASE

语义记忆是指习得的一般知识，包括知识 事实、概念和词义。阿尔茨海默病(AD)结果 在语义记忆的进行性破坏中，最终会有一个 对理解、对事件的记忆、对思考的毁灭性影响 计划和沟通。这项建议旨在澄清 阿尔茨海默病引起的语义记忆障碍的性质。该项目 以一种普遍的认知为指导，并旨在进一步发展 建筑称为MEM(Johnson，1983，出版社-a，b；Johnson&Hirst，in 按下)。MEM是理解这两种常态的理论框架 记忆和功能障碍，例如，在妄想症中， 聊天，还有健忘症。根据MEM的说法，记忆是在 最具全局功能水平分为两大系统，一是知觉记忆 系统和反射存储系统。在该框架中，语义 记忆既受知觉系统的支持，也受反射系统的支持。这个 阿尔茨海默病的广泛性认知缺陷被认为是由 对反射系统的破坏，尤指对 执行议程招募其他反思部门的能力 进程(参见内贝斯、)。基于AD的这种特征，我们 期望概念之间的潜在结构关系(例如，狗， 是动物)和概念的属性(例如，汽车有引擎) 可能保持完好，但患者的日子越来越难熬 在认知任务中使用这些信息是因为反思过程 它们使用的核心被打乱了。有人建议进行实验， 评估AD对语义可用性和使用的影响 各种类型的信息。将从以下方面获得一致的证据 几个任务，包括语义关系的验证(例如， 麻雀是鸟吗？)，对善或重要性的判断(例如，哪一种是 对汽车、发动机或轮毂的概念来说更核心？)，命名 对象和自由关联。这些研究也将提供有用的 阿尔茨海默病受损脑区认知功能的识别数据 (例如，Van Hoesen&Damasio，1987)。

Semantic memory refers to acquired generic knowledge, including knowledge of facts, concepts, and word meanings. Alzheimer's disease (AD) results in a progressive disruption in semantic memory that ultimately has a devastating effect on comprehension, memory for events, thinking, planning, and communicating. This proposal is directed at clarifying the nature of the disruption in semantic memory produced by AD. The project is guided by and intended to further develop a general cognitive architecture called MEM (Johnson, 1983, in press-a,b; Johnson & Hirst, in press). MEM is a theoretical framework for understanding both normal memory and disruption of function, for example, in delusions, confabulation, and amnesia. According to MEM, memory is organized at the most global functional level into two major systems, a perceptual memory system and a reflective memory system. In this framework, semantic memory is supported by both perceptual and reflective systems. The generalized cognitive deficits in AD are hypothesized to result from a disruption of the reflective system, especially a disruption of the ability of executive agendas to recruit other component reflective processes (cf. Nebes, 1989). Based on this characterization of AD, we expect that underlying structural relations among concepts (e.g., a dog, is an animal) and among attributes of concepts (e.g., cars have engines) may remain intact, but patients increasingly have a more difficult time using this information in cognitive tasks because reflective processes central to their use are disrupted. Experiments are proposed that assess the impact of AD on both the availability and use of semantic information of various types. Converging evidence will be obtained from several tasks, including verification of semantic relations (e.g., Is a sparrow a bird?), judgments of goodness or importance (e.g., Which is more central to the concept of a car, engine or hubcaps?), naming objects, and free association. These studies will also provide useful data for identifying the cognitive functions of brain areas damaged in AD (e.g., Van Hoesen & Damasio, 1987).