What is semantic memory primarily concerned with?

Semantic memory is primarily concerned with facts and concepts, which encompasses our knowledge about the world, including the meanings of words, general knowledge, and information about objects, ideas, and concepts. It allows individuals to remember and understand facts that are not connected to personal experience, distinguishing it from episodic memory, which is related to specific events and personal experiences.

Semantic memory plays a crucial role in language comprehension, the ability to categorize information, and the retrieval of knowledge that is essential for reasoning and problem-solving. This type of memory enables a person to recognize that Paris is the capital of France, understand mathematical concepts, or recall vocabulary definitions. It is essentially the mental encyclopedia of facts we use daily, independent of the context in which we learned them.