Living things are identified using sensory objects and artifacts by functions. This leads to the conclusion that our ability to differentiate artifacts and living things comes from our semantic memory (which has a system for distinguishing sensory attributes and another for functions).

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

People can have brain damage where their memory is impaired, but only when trying to identify certain types of categories. For example, some patients with brain damage from encephalitis were able to remember non-animal objects (i.e. furniture and tools) but were not able to identify animals.

Category-specific memory impairment 

Memory of facts (i.e. recalling the president of the US) that is not associated with a particular time or context. 

Semantic memory

- Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis
- Semantic category approach
- Multiple factor approach
- Crowding
- Embodied approach

Hypotheses about knowledge of categories and concepts in the brain

- Crowding
- Multiple factor approach
- Semantic Category approach
- Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis

Hypotheses about distinguishing artifacts and living things

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Sensory-functional (S-F) hypothesis

Over time memories can lose their episodic elements but retain semantic ones.

Semanticization of remote memories

Tulving suggests that memory of previous events, termed “episodic memory,” is different from “semantic memory” that is used for facts (p. 121-122). Retrieval of episodic memory requires remembering something consciously, while retrieval of semantic memory requires knowledge of information separate from personal experiences. Some amnesiac patients have difficulty accessing episodic memory, but are able to develop semantic knowledge (p. 122).

Episodic vs. Semantic Memory

A form of memory loss where knowledge of all concepts is affected (regardless of category). Patients are typically equally bad at distinguishing living things and animals.

Semantic dementia

There are specific neural circuits in the brain for certain categories. These neural circuits are innately determined based on how they helped survival.

Semantic category approach 

Categories have a distributed representation which take into account many features which determine how concepts are divided up within them.

Multiple factor approach

Many animals share similar features (i.e. legs, eyes, etc). Artifacts on the other hand do not share as many (they are more variable. This has led researchers to the posit that the reason some people have trouble identifying different animal related categories is because they share many features.

Crowding

Our knowledge of concepts comes from the reactivation of neurons when we interact with them again.

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