Spreading Activation

A method for searching associative networks, biological or artificial neural networks, or semantic networks by propagating activation along connections. Activating one concept primes related concepts, making them easier to access.

Example

Hear “dog” and concepts like cat, bark, pet, bone become easier to retrieve. Words related to a prime are identified faster than unrelated words in masking tasks.

Works hand-in-hand with the Hierarchical Semantic Network view of how semantic memory is organized.