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Property generation reflects word association and situated simulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Ava Santos ,
Sergio E. Chaigneau ,
W. Kyle Simmons  and
Lawrence W. Barsalou
Ava Santos*
Affiliation:
Fort Lewis College
Sergio E. Chaigneau
Affiliation:
Universidad Adolfo Ibanez
W. Kyle Simmons
Affiliation:
Laureate Institute for Brain Research
Lawrence W. Barsalou*
Affiliation:
Emory University
*
Correspondence addresses: Ava Santos, Department of Psychology, 1000 Rim Dr., Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO 81301, USA
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. E-mail: Santos_a@fortlewis.edu or barsalou@emory.edu
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Abstract

The property generation task (i.e. “feature listing”) is often assumed to measure concepts. Typically, researchers assume implicitly that the underlying representation of a concept consists of amodal propositions, and that verbal responses during property generation reveal their conceptual content. The experiments reported here suggest instead that verbal responses during property generation reflect two alternative sources of information: the linguistic form system and the situated simulation system. In two experiments, properties bearing a linguistic relation to the word for a concept were produced earlier than properties not bearing a linguistic relation, suggesting the early properties tend to originate in a word association process. Conversely, properties produced later tended to describe objects and situations, suggesting that late properties tend to originate from describing situated simulations. A companion neuroimaging experiment reported elsewhere confirms that early properties originate in language areas, whereas later properties originate in situated simulation areas. Together, these results, along with other results in the literature, indicate that property generation is a relatively complex process, drawing on at least two systems somewhat asynchronously.

Keywords

conceptscategorieslexical semanticsfeaturesfeature normsproperty generationmental simulationsituated cognitionword associationlinguistic forms
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 83 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2011

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