A Path-Curvature Measure for Word-Based Strategy Searches in Semantic Networks

Abstract

Building on a modified version of the Haantjes path-based curvature, this article offers a novel measure that considers the direction of a stream of associations in a semantic network and estimates the extent to which any single association attracts the upcoming associations to its environment—in other words, to what degree one explores that environment. We demonstrate that our measure differs from Haantjes curvature and confirm that it expresses the extent to which a stream of associations remains close to its starting point. Finally, we examine the relationship between our measure and accessibility to knowledge stored in memory. We demonstrate that a high degree of attraction facilitates the retrieval of upcoming words in the stream. By applying methods from differential geometry to semantic networks, this study contributes to our understanding of strategic search in memory.

Keywords

• complex network
• semantic network
• Ricci curvature
• path curvature
• category fluency test
• search strategies