The Evolution

The Evolution
52
pitcher(water)—and memory could then use the same whole-to-whole links
to disambiguate the concept "pitcher" as a specific Yankee pitcher.
Intersection Tasks versus Memorization

It should be noted that the above examples (e.g. apple container,
donkey kick, etc.) are less than ideal because they leave some doubt
as to whether a Type I or the more interesting Type II intersection is
at work. This is one of the reasons deliberately artificial phrases
such as hospital blade (or better yet Africa striped intersecting
"zebra") are more interesting intersection tasks than casually ambiguous
phrases such as apple container. If "hospital blade" yields "scalpel"
there is little doubt that "hospital" does so because of the whole-to-
whole link it has with "scalpel." With "apple container," however,
there is doubt as to whether "apple" operates by a part-whole link
with the image of a basket containing apples, or if "apple" operates
by a whole-to-whole link with an image of basket alone—or if perhaps
both links exist. This kind of flexibility, which undoubtedly memory
possesses, makes the job of the experimenter that much more difficult.

Even so, it is almost certain that the data from intersection
tasks tell the theorist far more about cognitive organization than do
the data from memorization and learning tasks. This is because an
intersection task probes cognitive organization by concentrating on
only one aspect of memory, information retrieval, whereas a memorization
task simultaneously involves information processing, storage, and
retrieval, three sets of variables instead of one.

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