Collins and Quillian model

The Collins and Quillian model is a way to represent knowledge in our minds using a network of interconnected concepts. Imagine a tree structure where each node represents a idea—like "animal" or "bird." More specific concepts, such as "sparrow," connect to broader categories. This model suggests that we retrieve information by navigating these connections; for example, to recall that a sparrow can fly, we move from "sparrow" to "bird" and then to "can fly." This hierarchical organization helps explain how we store and recall general knowledge efficiently by linking related ideas.