The Effects of Prior Processing Episodes on Basic level Superiority

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie L. Lin ◽  
Gregory L. Murphy ◽  
Edward J. Shoben
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects ◽  
Category Member ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
Categorization Task ◽  
Subordinate Level ◽  
Stable Invariant ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Prior Processing

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of prior processing episodes on people's preference for categorizing objects at the basic level (e.g. dog) relative to their preference for categorizing at the superordinate (e.g. animal) and the subordinate (e.g. Dalmation) levels. The prior processing episode in Experiment 1 was designed to induce subjects to activate representations at the superordinate level, and those in the remaining experiments were designed to induce subjects to differentiate objects at the subordinate level. After the prior processing episodes, subjects performed either a free naming or a picture categorization task that required them to decide whether an illustrated object belonged to a specified category. Results showed that prior processing episodes modestly reduced the superiority of basic level to superordinate level and subordinate level in categorization but not in free naming. The results suggest that the basic-level advantage is subject to the effects of context, but the effects are not as strong as the context effects on other aspects of categorization behaviour (e.g. rating typicality of a category member). Hence, the preference for the basic level is a somewhat more stable, invariant aspect of conceptual representation. Possible determinations of this stability are discussed.

Context effects on lexical specificity in maternal and child discourse

1986 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Lucariello ◽  
Katherine Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mother And Child ◽  
Subordinate Level ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Category Formation ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Play Context

ABSTRACTMother–child (two-year-old) object labelling was studied in three natural discourse settings: (1) routine, caretaking; (2) free play; and (3) novel. Object labelling was found to be considerably more varied in these natural discourse settings than in experimental situations. While basic level tokens predominated in the free play context, they were significantly less prevalent in the routine and novel contexts. Additionally, subordinate level term usage was more common in the routine and novel contexts. The relation between mother and child labelling was also investigated and results indicated that context may be more important in determining level of labels than maternal modelling. Analyses of the discourse uses of non-basic level terms revealed that mothers were organizing the social-interactive context in ways that may facilitate child category formation.

Transforming semantic interference into facilitation in a picture–word interference task

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 1025-1049 ◽  
Author(s):  
QINGFANG ZHANG ◽  
CHEN FENG ◽  
XUEBING ZHU ◽  
CHENG WANG
Keyword(s):  
Context Effect ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Semantic Context ◽  
Context Word ◽  
Lexical Selection ◽  
Semantic Interference ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Interference Task ◽  
Empirical Level ◽  
Basic Level

ABSTRACTA number of studies that observed semantic facilitation in a picture–word interference task questioned the hypothesis that lexical selection during speech production is a competitive process. Semantic facilitation effects are typically observed when context words and target names do not belong to the same semantic category level. In the experiments reported in this article, we used a picture–word interference task with basic-level context words and basic-level naming (i.e., the context word is dog, and the target name is cat) to investigate semantic context effects. We observed a reversal of semantic context effect: context words that induce semantic interference when stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) are –100 and 0 ms and induce semantic facilitation at large negative SOA values (from –1000 to –400 ms, in steps of 200 ms). At the empirical level, our data suggest that manipulating SOA can reverse the polarity of the semantic context effect. Our analysis demonstrates that the conceptual selection model provides the most straightforward way to account for the reported polarity shift and the different SOA ranges covered by the semantic interference effect and the semantic facilitation effect.

scholarly journals The blowfish effect: children and adults use atypical exemplars to infer more narrow categories during word learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (05) ◽  
pp. 938-954
Author(s):  
Lauren L. EMBERSON ◽  
Nicole LONCAR ◽  
Carolyn MAZZEI ◽  
Isaac TREVES ◽  
Adele E. GOLDBERG
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Category Learning ◽  
Category Member ◽  
Coincidence Effect ◽  
Independent Work ◽  
Basic Level

AbstractLearners preferentially interpret novel nouns at the basic level (‘dog’) rather than at a more narrow level (‘Labrador’). This ‘basic-level bias’ is mitigated by statistics: children and adults are more likely to interpret a novel noun at a more narrow label if they witness ‘a suspicious coincidence’ – the word applied to three exemplars of the same narrow category. Independent work has found that exemplar typicality influences learners’ inferences and category learning. We bring these lines of work together to investigate whether the content (typicality) of a single exemplar affects the level of interpretation of words and whether an atypicality effect interacts with input statistics. Results demonstrate that both four- to five-year-olds and adults tend to assign a narrower interpretation to a word if it is exemplified by an atypical category member. This atypicality effect is roughly as strong as, and independent of, the suspicious coincidence effect, which is replicated.

The Effects of Prior Processing Episodes on Basic level Superiority

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie L. Lin ◽  
Gregory L. Murphy ◽  
Edward J. Shoben
Keyword(s):  
Basic Level ◽  
Prior Processing

scholarly journals Conditions for Facelike Expertise With Objects

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1108-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan C.-N. Wong ◽  
Thomas J. Palmeri ◽  
Isabel Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Holistic Processing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Configural Information ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Subordinate Level ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Level Training

Compared with other objects, faces are processed more holistically and with a larger reliance on configural information. Such hallmarks efface processing can also be found for nonface objects as people develop expertise with them. Is this specifically a result of expertise individuating objects, or would any type of prolonged intensive experience with objects be sufficient? Two groups of participants were trained with artificial objects (Ziggerins). One group learned to rapidly individuate Ziggerins (i.e., subordinate-level training). The other group learned rapid, sequential categorizations at the basic level. Individuation experts showed a selective improvement at the subordinate level and an increase in holistic processing. Categorization experts improved only at the basic level, showing no changes in holistic processing. Attentive exposure to objects in a difficult training regimen is not sufficient to produce facelike expertise. Rather, qualitatively different types of expertise with objects of a given geometry can arise depending on the type of training.

scholarly journals The characterization of actions at the superordinate, basic and subordinate level

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonghe Zhuang ◽  
Angelika Lingnau
Keyword(s):  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Subordinate Level ◽  
Auditory Priming ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
Feature Listing ◽  
Distinct Features ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractObjects can be categorized at different levels of abstraction, ranging from the superordinate (e.g., fruit) and the basic (e.g., apple) to the subordinate level (e.g., golden delicious). The basic level is assumed to play a key role in categorization, e.g., in terms of the number of features used to describe these actions and the speed of processing. To which degree do these principles also apply to the categorization of observed actions? To address this question, we first selected a range of actions at the superordinate (e.g., locomotion), basic (e.g., to swim) and subordinate level (e.g., to swim breaststroke), using verbal material (Experiments 1–3). Experiments 4–6 aimed to determine the characteristics of these actions across the three taxonomic levels. Using a feature listing paradigm (Experiment 4), we determined the number of features that were provided by at least six out of twenty participants (common features), separately for the three different levels. In addition, we examined the number of shared (i.e., provided for more than one category) and distinct (i.e., provided for one category only) features. Participants produced the highest number of common features for actions at the basic level. Actions at the subordinate level shared more features with other actions at the same level than those at the superordinate level. Actions at the superordinate and basic level were described with more distinct features compared to those provided at the subordinate level. Using an auditory priming paradigm (Experiment 5), we observed that participants responded faster to action images preceded by a matching auditory cue corresponding to the basic and subordinate level, but not for superordinate level cues, suggesting that the basic level is the most abstract level at which verbal cues facilitate the processing of an upcoming action. Using a category verification task (Experiment 6), we found that participants were faster and more accurate to verify action categories (depicted as images) at the basic and subordinate level in comparison to the superordinate level. Together, in line with the object categorization literature, our results suggest that information about action categories is maximized at the basic level.

scholarly journals Development of evaluative knowledge about educational activities in modern English

Neophilology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 626-635
Author(s):  
Liudmila A. Furs ◽  
Elizaveta A. Finaeva
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Main Method ◽  
Subordinate Level ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Basic Level

The aim of the study is to develop evaluative knowledge about educational activities in modern English. The relevance of the study is determined by the cognitive approach, in the framework of which the level belonging of evaluative concepts is considered and the means of their representation are revealed. As the main method, the conceptual-definitional analysis is declared, on the basis of which the characteristics of the UPBRINGING concept are revealed and the evaluative benchmarks of the subject of assessment are established in relation to various aspects of educational activity, presented in the form of a frame. We determine that at the superordinate level, evaluative knowledge is based on the acceptability of certain indicators and their compliance with social norms. At this level, assessment is represented by the adjectives accepta-ble/unacceptable and proper. Evaluative knowledge of the basic level is represented by the adjec-tives good, bad, perfect, great, fine. For the observer, in this case, private evaluative meanings are not important, the assessment is presented in a gestalt manner and indicates the approval of the observer due to the compliance of a certain objective characteristic with the standard. At the subordinate level, the assessment is projected onto various private assessment benchmarks that are significant for the observer. It is concluded that the evaluative knowledge about educational activities is formed at the intersection of objective and evaluative characteristics.

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