Mental model organization

J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 1993 Jan;19(1):95-114. doi: 10.1037//0278-7393.19.1.95.

Abstract

Previous research (Radvansky & Zacks, 1991) has shown that the fan effect is mediated not by the number of nominal associations paired with a concept but by the number of mental models into which related concepts are organized. Specifically, newly learned "facts" about different objects in one location are integrated into a single mental model and no fan effect is produced, whereas facts about one object in different locations are not integrated and a fan effect is produced. In 6 experiments we investigated several factors' influence on location-based organization preferences. We found no impact of either article type (definite or indefinite) or object transportability. However, animate sentence subjects (people) reduced preference for location-based organizations. A clear person-based organization emerged by using locations that typically contain only a single person (e.g., phone booth) to make location-based situations less plausible.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Cognition*
  • Concept Formation
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language
  • Male
  • Memory*
  • Models, Psychological
  • Reaction Time