Evidence for scripts in semantic dementia: Implications for theories of semantic memory

Elaine Funnell

(2001)

Elaine Funnell (2001) Evidence for scripts in semantic dementia: Implications for theories of semantic memory . Cognitive Neuropsychology, 18 (4). pp. 323-341. ISSN 0264-3294

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Abstract

This paper presents evidence that the breakdown of semantic memory in semantic dementia reveals the influence of two properties of script theory (Schank and Abelson, 1977; Schank, 1982). First, the physical and personal context of specific scripts supports meaning for words, objects and locations that are involved in the script. Second, meaning is updated or transformed by a dynamic memory system that learns continuously from personal experience. In severe cases, semantic dementia reveals the basic level of this learning system, from which knowledge normally develops. It will be argued that the evidence supports a theory of semantic memory that represents meaning in a continuum of levels of meaning from the most specific and context-bound the most generalisable and context free. This contrasts with current theories of semantic memory that represent meaning as a collection of abstracted properties entirely removed from the context of events and activities.

Information about this Version

This is a Draft version
This version's date is: 01/06/2001
This item is peer reviewed

Link to this Version

https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/e7fb300d-4f95-7c37-437d-e88c938494f0/1/

Item TypeJournal Article
TitleEvidence for scripts in semantic dementia: Implications for theories of semantic memory
AuthorsFunnell, Elaine
DepartmentsFaculty of Science\Psychology

Identifiers

doi10.1080/02643290042000134

Deposited by () on 09-Apr-2010 in Royal Holloway Research Online.Last modified on 06-Jan-2011

Notes

(C) 2001 Taylor & Francis, whose permission to mount this version for private study and research is acknowledged.  The repository version is the author's final draft.

References

 

 

 

Allport, D.A. (1985). Distributed memory, modular subsystems and dysphasia. In S.K. Newman and R. Epstein (Eds.), Current Perspectives in Dysphasia (pp 207-244). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

 

Barrett, M.D. (1986).  Early semantic representations and early word usage.  In S.A. Kuczaj II and M.D. Barrett (Eds.), The development of word meaning:  Progress in cognitive development research, (pp. 39-68).  New York:  Springer-Verlag.

 

Breedin, S.D., Saffran, E.M. and Coslett, H.B. (1994). Reversal of the concreteness effect in a patient with semantic dementia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 11, 617-660.

 

Buxbaum, L.J., Schwartz, M.F., and Carew, T.G. (1997).  The role of semantic memory in object use.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 14, 219-254.

 

Campbell, R. and Manning, L. (1996). Optic aphasia: A case with spared action naming and associated disorders. Brain and Language, 53, 183-221.

 

Caramazza, A., Hillis, A.E., Rapp, B. and Romani, C. (1990). The multiple semantics hypothesis: Multiple confusions? Cognitive Neuropsychology, 7, 161-189.

 

Conway, M.A. and Rubin, D.C. (1993).  The structure of autobiographical memory.  In A.F. Collins, S.E. Gathercole, M.A. Conway, and P.E. Morris (Eds.), Theories of Memory, (pp.103-137).  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Coltheart, M., Inglis, L., Cupples, L., Michie, P., Bates, A., and Budd, B. (1998). A semantic subsystem of visual attributes. Neurocase, 4, 353-370.

 

Farah, M.J., Hammond, K.M., Mehta, Z. and Ratcliff, G. (1989). Category-specificity and modality-specificity in semantic memory. Neuropsychologia, 27, 193-200.

 

Farah, M.J. and McClelland, J.L. (1991). A computational model of semantic memory impairment: modality specificity and emergent category specificity. Journal of Experimental Psychology General, 120, 339-357.

 

Funnell, E. (1995a).  Objects and properties:  A study of the breakdown of semantic memory.  In S.E. Gathercole and M.A. Conway (Eds.), Memory, 3, 497-518.

 

Funnell, E. (1995b).  A case of forgotten knowledge.  In R. Campbell and M.A. Conway (Eds.), Broken Memories, (pp. 225-236).  Oxford:  Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

 

Funnell, E. (1996). Semantic dementia: A role for goals and scripts in the memory for object concepts in every-day situations. Paper presented to the British Neuropsychological Society Annual General Meeting, London.

 

Funnell, E. (2000). Models of semantic memory: An introduction. In W.Best, K. Bryan and J. Maxim (Eds.), Semantic processing: Theory and Practice. London; Whurr Publishers (in press).

 

Grafman, J. (1989).  Plans, actions and mental sets:  Managerial knowledge units in the frontal lobes.  In E. Perecman (Ed.), Integrative theory and practice in clinical neuropsychology, (pp. 93-138).  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Grafman, J., Sirigu, A., Spector, L., and Hendler, J. (1993).  Damage to the prefrontal cortex leads to decomposition of structured event complexes.  Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 8, 73-87.

 

Grafman, J., Thompson, K., Weingartner, H., Martinez, R., Lawlor, B. and Sunderland, T. (1991). Script generation as an indicator of knowledge representation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Brain and Language, 40, 344-358.

 

Graham, K.S., Lambon Ralph, M.A., and Hodges, J.R. (1997).  Determining the impact of autobiographical experience on “Meaning”:  New insights from investigating sports related vocabulary and knowledge in two cases with semantic dementia.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 14, 801-837.

 

Graham, K.S., Lambon Ralph, M.A., and Hodges, J.R. (1999).  A questionable semantics:  The interaction between semantic knowledge and autobiographical experience in semantic dementia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 689-698.

 

Graham, K.S., Patterson, K., Pratt, K., and Hodges, J.R. (in press).  Relearning and subsequent forgetting of semantic category exemplars in a case of semantic dementia.  Neuropsychology.

 

Graham, K.S., Pratt, K., and Hodges, J.R. (1998).  A reverse temporal gradient for public events in a single case of semantic dementia.  Neurocase, 4, 461-470.

 

Hirsh, K.W. and Funnell, E. (1995).  Those old familiar things: Age of acquisition, familiarity and lexical access in progressive aphasia.  Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 23-32.

 

Hodges, J.R., Graham, N., and Patterson, K. (1995).  Charting the progression in semantic dementia:  Implications for the organisation of semantic memory.  Memory, 3, 463-495.

 

Hodges, J.R., Patterson, K., Oxbury, S. and Funnell, E. (1992). Semantic dementia. Progressive fluent aphasia with temporal lobe atrophy. Brain, 115, 1783-1806.

 

Hodges, J.R., Spatt, J. and Patterson, K. (1999). “What” and “how”: Evidence for the   dissociation of object knowledge and mechanical problem-solving skills in the     human brain. Proceedings National Academy of Science, 96, 9444-9448.

 

Howard, D. and Patterson, K. (1992). The Pyramids and Palm Trees Test. Bury St Edmunds: Thames Valley Test Company.

 

Kintsch, W. (1980). Semantic memory: a tutorial. In: Nickerson, R.S. (Ed.), Attention and Performance VIII. Cambridge, Mass: Bolt Beranek and Newman.

 

Lauro-Grotto, R., Piccini, C. and Shallice, T. (1997). Modality-specific operations in semantic dementia. Cortex, 33, 593-622.

 

Lhermitte, F. and Beauvois, M.F. (1973). A visual-speech disconnexion syndrome. Brain, 96, 695-714.

 

Lucariello, J., Kyratzis, A., and Engel, S. (1986).  In K Nelson (Ed.),  Event Knowledge, (pp. 137-159).  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Marshall, J., Pring, T., Chiat, S. and Robson, J. (1995/6). Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 237-250.

 

Marshall, J., Chiat, S., Robson, J. and Pring, T. (1995/6). Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 251-260.

 

McKenna, P. and Warrington, E.K. (1983) Graded Naming Test. Windsor, Berks: NFER-NELSON Publishing Company Ltd.

 

Nelson, K. (1985).  Making sense:  Development of meaning in early childhood.  New York:  Academic Press.

 

Nelson, K. (1986).  Event Knowledge.  Hillsdale, New Jersey, and London:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Nelson, K. (1996).  Language in cognitive development.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.

 

Norman, D.A. (1969). Memory and Attention. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

 

Plaut, D. and Shallice, T. (1993). Deep dyslexia: A case study of connectionist neuropsychology. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 10, 377-500.

 

Riddoch, M.J. and Humphreys, G.W. (1987a). A case of integrative visual agnosia. Brain, 110, 1431-62.

 

Riddoch, M.J. and Humphreys, G.W. (1987b). Visual objects           processing in optic aphasia: A case of semantic access        agnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 4, 131-185.

 

Riddoch, M.J., Humphreys, G.W., Coltheart, M. and Funnell, E. (1988). Semantic System or system? Neuropsychological evidence re-examined. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 5, 3-26.

 

Rosch, E., Mervis, C.B., Gray, W. D., Johnson, D.M., and Boyes-Braem, P. (1976). Basic objects in natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 382-439.

 

Saffran, E.M. and Schwartz, M.F. (1994). Of cabbages and things: Semantic memory from a neuropsychological perspective – A tutorial review. In C. Umilta and M. Moscovitch (Eds). Attention and Performance XV. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Books.

 

Sirigu, A., Duhamel, J.R. and Poncet, M. (1991). Brain, 114, 2555-2573.

 

Schank, R.C., and Abelson, R. (1977).  Scripts, plans, goals and understanding.  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Schank, R.C. (1982).  Dynamic memory.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.

 

Shallice, T. (1988). From neuropsychology to mental structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Sirigu, A., Dehamel, J-R. and Poncet, M. (1991). The role of sensorimotor experience in object recognition. Brain, 114, 2555-2573.

 

Sirigu, A., Zalla, T., Pillon, B., Grafman, J., Agid,Y., and Dubois, B. (1995).  Selective impairments in managerial knowledge following prefrontal cortex damage.  Cortex, 31, 301-316.

 

Sirigu, A., Zalla, T., Pillon, B., Grafman, J., Agid,Y., and Dubois, B. (1996).  Encoding of sequence and boundaries of scripts following prefrontal lesions.  Cortex, 32,   297-310.

 

Schwartz, M.F., Saffran, E.M. and Marin, O.S.M. (1979). Dissociations of language function in dementia: a case study. Brain and Language, 7, 277-306.

 

Schwartz, M.F. , Saffran, E.M. and Marin, O.S.M. (1980). Fractionating the reading process in dementia: Evidence of word-specific print-to-sound associations. In M. Coltheart, K. Patterson, and J.C. Marshall (Eds.), Deep Dyslexia. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

 

Snowden, J.S., Goulding, P.J., and Neary, D. (1989).  Semantic dementia:  A form of circumscribed cerebral atrophy.  Behavioural Neurology, 2, 167-182.

 

Snowden, J.S., Griffiths, H., and Neary, D. (1994).  Semantic dementia:  Autobiographical contribution to preservation of meaning. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 11, 265-392.

 

Snowden, J.S., Griffiths, H., and Neary, D. (1996).  Semantic-episodic memory interactions in semantic dementia:  Implications for retrograde memory function.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13, 1101-1137.

 

Snowden, J.S., Griffiths, H., and Neary, D. (1999).  The impact of autobiographical experience on meaning:  Reply to Graham, Lambon Ralph, and Hodges.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 673-687.

 

Tulving, E. (1972).  Episodic and semantic memory.  In E. Tulving and W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 382-404).  New York:  Academic Press.

 

Tulving, E. (1985).  How many memory systems are there?  American Psychologist, 40, 385-398.

 

 Warrington, E.K. (1975). The selective impairment of semantic memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 27, 635-637.

 

 

 

Allport, D.A. (1985). Distributed memory, modular subsystems and dysphasia. In S.K. Newman and R. Epstein (Eds.), Current Perspectives in Dysphasia (pp 207-244). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

 

Barrett, M.D. (1986).  Early semantic representations and early word usage.  In S.A. Kuczaj II and M.D. Barrett (Eds.), The development of word meaning:  Progress in cognitive development research, (pp. 39-68).  New York:  Springer-Verlag.

 

Breedin, S.D., Saffran, E.M. and Coslett, H.B. (1994). Reversal of the concreteness effect        in a patient with semantic dementia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 11, 617-660.

 

Buxbaum, L.J., Schwartz, M.F., and Carew, T.G. (1997).  The role of semantic memory in object use.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 14, 219-254.

 

Campbell, R. and Manning, L. (1996). Optic aphasia: A case with spared action naming and associated disorders. Brain and Language, 53, 183-221.

 

Caramazza, A., Hillis, A.E., Rapp, B. and Romani, C. (1990). The multiple semantics hypothesis: Multiple confusions? Cognitive Neuropsychology, 7, 161-189.

 

Conway, M.A. and Rubin, D.C. (1993).  The structure of autobiographical memory.  In A.F. Collins, S.E. Gathercole, M.A. Conway, and P.E. Morris (Eds.), Theories of Memory, (pp.103-137).  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Coltheart, M., Inglis, L., Cupples, L., Michie, P., Bates, A., and Budd, B. (1998). A semantic subsystem of visual attributes. Neurocase, 4, 353-370.

 

Farah, M.J., Hammond, K.M., Mehta, Z. and Ratcliff, G. (1989). Category-specificity and modality-specificity in semantic memory. Neuropsychologia, 27, 193-200.

 

Farah, M.J. and McClelland, J.L. (1991). A computational model of semantic memory impairment: modality specificity and emergent category specificity. Journal of Experimental Psychology General, 120, 339-357.

 

Funnell, E. (1995a).  Objects and properties:  A study of the breakdown of semantic memory.  In S.E. Gathercole and M.A. Conway (Eds.), Memory, 3, 497-518.

 

Funnell, E. (1995b).  A case of forgotten knowledge.  In R. Campbell and M.A. Conway (Eds.), Broken Memories, (pp. 225-236).  Oxford:  Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

 

Funnell, E. (1996). Semantic dementia: A role for goals and scripts in the memory for object concepts in every-day situations. Paper presented to the British Neuropsychological Society Annual General Meeting, London.

 

Funnell, E. (2000). Models of semantic memory: An introduction. In W.Best, K. Bryan and J. Maxim (Eds.), Semantic processing: Theory and Practice. London; Whurr Publishers (in press).

 

Grafman, J. (1989).  Plans, actions and mental sets:  Managerial knowledge units in the frontal lobes.  In E. Perecman (Ed.), Integrative theory and practice in clinical neuropsychology, (pp. 93-138).  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Grafman, J., Sirigu, A., Spector, L., and Hendler, J. (1993).  Damage to the prefrontal cortex leads to decomposition of structured event complexes.  Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 8, 73-87.

 

Grafman, J., Thompson, K., Weingartner, H., Martinez, R., Lawlor, B. and Sunderland, T. (1991). Script generation as an indicator of knowledge representation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Brain and Language, 40, 344-358.

 

Graham, K.S., Lambon Ralph, M.A., and Hodges, J.R. (1997).  Determining the impact of autobiographical experience on “Meaning”:  New insights from investigating sports related vocabulary and knowledge in two cases with semantic dementia.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 14, 801-837.

 

Graham, K.S., Lambon Ralph, M.A., and Hodges, J.R. (1999).  A questionable semantics:  The interaction between semantic knowledge and autobiographical experience in semantic dementia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 689-698.

 

Graham, K.S., Patterson, K., Pratt, K., and Hodges, J.R. (in press).  Relearning and subsequent forgetting of semantic category exemplars in a case of semantic dementia.  Neuropsychology.

 

Graham, K.S., Pratt, K., and Hodges, J.R. (1998).  A reverse temporal gradient for public events in a single case of semantic dementia.  Neurocase, 4, 461-470.

 

Hirsh, K.W. and Funnell, E. (1995).  Those old familiar things: Age of acquisition, familiarity and lexical access in progressive aphasia.  Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 23-32.

 

Hodges, J.R., Graham, N., and Patterson, K. (1995).  Charting the progression in semantic dementia:  Implications for the organisation of semantic memory.  Memory, 3, 463-495.

 

Hodges, J.R., Patterson, K., Oxbury, S. and Funnell, E. (1992). Semantic dementia.     Progressive fluent aphasia with temporal lobe atrophy. Brain, 115, 1783-1806.

 

Hodges, J.R., Spatt, J. and Patterson, K. (1999). “What” and “how”: Evidence for the  dissociation of object knowledge and mechanical problem-solving skills in the       human brain. Proceedings National Academy of Science, 96, 9444-9448.

 

Howard, D. and Patterson, K. (1992). The Pyramids and Palm Trees Test. Bury St Edmunds: Thames Valley Test Company.

 

Kintsch, W. (1980). Semantic memory: a tutorial. In: Nickerson, R.S. (Ed.), Attention and Performance VIII. Cambridge, Mass: Bolt Beranek and Newman.

 

Lauro-Grotto, R., Piccini, C. and Shallice, T. (1997). Modality-specific operations in semantic dementia. Cortex, 33, 593-622.

 

Lhermitte, F. and Beauvois, M.F. (1973). A visual-speech disconnexion syndrome. Brain, 96, 695-714.

 

Lucariello, J., Kyratzis, A., and Engel, S. (1986).  In K Nelson (Ed.),  Event Knowledge, (pp. 137-159).  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Marshall, J., Pring, T., Chiat, S. and Robson, J. (1995/6). Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 237-250.

 

Marshall, J., Chiat, S., Robson, J. and Pring, T. (1995/6). Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 251-260.

 

McKenna, P. and Warrington, E.K. (1983) Graded Naming Test. Windsor, Berks: NFER-NELSON Publishing Company Ltd.

 

Nelson, K. (1985).  Making sense:  Development of meaning in early childhood.  New York:  Academic Press.

 

Nelson, K. (1986).  Event Knowledge.  Hillsdale, New Jersey, and London:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Nelson, K. (1996).  Language in cognitive development.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.

 

Norman, D.A. (1969). Memory and Attention. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

 

Plaut, D. and Shallice, T. (1993). Deep dyslexia: A case study of connectionist neuropsychology. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 10, 377-500.

 

Riddoch, M.J. and Humphreys, G.W. (1987a). A case of integrative visual agnosia. Brain, 110, 1431-62.

 

Riddoch, M.J. and Humphreys, G.W. (1987b). Visual objects           processing in optic aphasia: A case of semantic access        agnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 4, 131-185.

 

Riddoch, M.J., Humphreys, G.W., Coltheart, M. and Funnell, E. (1988). Semantic System or system? Neuropsychological evidence re-examined. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 5, 3-26.

 

Rosch, E., Mervis, C.B., Gray, W. D., Johnson, D.M., and Boyes-Braem, P. (1976). Basic objects in natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 382-439.

 

Saffran, E.M. and Schwartz, M.F. (1994). Of cabbages and things: Semantic memory from a neuropsychological perspective – A tutorial review. In C. Umilta and M. Moscovitch (Eds). Attention and Performance XV. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Books.

 

Sirigu, A., Duhamel, J.R. and Poncet, M. (1991). Brain, 114, 2555-2573.

 

Schank, R.C., and Abelson, R. (1977).  Scripts, plans, goals and understanding.  Hillsdale, New Jersey:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Schank, R.C. (1982).  Dynamic memory.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.

 

Shallice, T. (1988). From neuropsychology to mental structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Sirigu, A., Dehamel, J-R. and Poncet, M. (1991). The role of sensorimotor experience in object recognition. Brain, 114, 2555-2573.

 

Sirigu, A., Zalla, T., Pillon, B., Grafman, J., Agid,Y., and Dubois, B. (1995).  Selective impairments in managerial knowledge following prefrontal cortex damage.  Cortex, 31, 301-316.

 

Sirigu, A., Zalla, T., Pillon, B., Grafman, J., Agid,Y., and Dubois, B. (1996).  Encoding of sequence and boundaries of scripts following prefrontal lesions.  Cortex, 32,   297-310.

 

Schwartz, M.F., Saffran, E.M. and Marin, O.S.M. (1979). Dissociations of language function in dementia: a case study. Brain and Language, 7, 277-306.

 

Schwartz, M.F. , Saffran, E.M. and Marin, O.S.M. (1980). Fractionating the reading process in dementia: Evidence of word-specific print-to-sound associations. In M. Coltheart, K. Patterson, and J.C. Marshall (Eds.), Deep Dyslexia. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

 

Snowden, J.S., Goulding, P.J., and Neary, D. (1989).  Semantic dementia:  A form of circumscribed cerebral atrophy.  Behavioural Neurology, 2, 167-182.

 

Snowden, J.S., Griffiths, H., and Neary, D. (1994).  Semantic dementia:  Autobiographical contribution to preservation of meaning. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 11, 265-392.

 

Snowden, J.S., Griffiths, H., and Neary, D. (1996).  Semantic-episodic memory interactions in semantic dementia:  Implications for retrograde memory function.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13, 1101-1137.

 

Snowden, J.S., Griffiths, H., and Neary, D. (1999).  The impact of autobiographical experience on meaning:  Reply to Graham, Lambon Ralph, and Hodges.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 673-687.

 

Tulving, E. (1972).  Episodic and semantic memory.  In E. Tulving and W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 382-404).  New York:  Academic Press.

 

Tulving, E. (1985).  How many memory systems are there?  American Psychologist, 40, 385-398.

 

 Warrington, E.K. (1975). The selective impairment of semantic memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 27, 635-637.


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