The Evolution

The Evolution
44

an intersected concept (i.e. Florida drink yields "orange juice" before
it yields anything else); whereas in a Type III intersection such as
Florida eggs, "toast" or "sunshine" or any number of concepts might be
(yielded before "orange juice" is yielded (if it is yielded at all).

Thus the Type III question What is associated with Florida and
eggs? (answer: "orange juice") should be answerable, but should frequently
require a process of trial-and-error that would be unnecessary if the
question were instead What kind of drink is associated with Florida?

The prediction that Type II intersections should prove easy for
memory, and Type III intersections difficult, is a key point of psycho-
evolutionary theory.

Objections to Spreading-Activation

It is interesting that while Freedman and Loftus (1971) offer no
clear explanation of their finding that noun categories behave differently
in memory from adjectives and letters, Collins and Loftus (1975) do attempt
such an explanation. They point out that the various concepts denoted
by a noun category usually are "interlinked" in a way that the various
concepts or words denoted by an adjective or letter are not. Thus the
different kinds of fruit, for instance, usually occur together and so
become interlinked. Collins and Loftus then argue that this makes a
spreading-activation more effective among the members of the "fruit"
category than it is among the members of the class of "red" concepts, and
that it is this time-consuming spreading-activation, which may begin only

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