`titrebOrganization of semantic knowledge: from classical to non abstractive models`/titreb“Semantic memory” refers to a store of knowledge about objects, words and people. Several theoretical models have been formulated to account for the organization and nature of this knowledge. We will call the first approach, widely influent until now, the “abstractive” view. It assumes that knowledge, built from sensorimotor experiences, is represented in a permanent way, in an abstract, amodal format, within a semantic memory system, separate from the episodic memory system and perceptual and motor modal systems.Other theories have challenged this view and assumed that knowledge is represented in a distributed way in perceptual and motor modal systems. In line with these views, we will follow Hintzman’s (1986) theoretical framework, which rejects the hypothesis of a permanent semantic memory and assumes that evoking knowledge about a given item rises from the temporary re-activation of sensorimotor episodic traces.