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How We Learn: The Importance of Semantics to Learning in a Known World

Thesis advisor: Lucas Coffman / This thesis explores the importance of semantic (specific-containing) information in learning as the amount of easily recognizable information increases. This study emulates the advertising industry, applying relevance to its findings. Through a randomized experiment, I find significant evidence that the increased frequency of new brands harms the memory of easily identifiable brands. I also find evidence that suggests that semantically presented new brands are more often remembered than episodically (story-based) presented new brands. Additionally, I observed directional but insignificant results suggesting that the effectiveness of semantic vs. episodic information on the identification of new brands is greatest as the frequency of easily identifiable brands increases and the quantity of semantically presented brands decreases. Despite the benefit that presenting information semantically has on remembering new brands, my findings suggest that people do not retain the specifics within semantically presented impressions. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_110017
Date January 2024
CreatorsTraver, Nicholas Kirby
PublisherBoston College
Source SetsBoston College
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, thesis
Formatelectronic, application/pdf
RightsCopyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.

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