Work

Colorless Green Ideas (Can) Prime Furiously

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: That similar words can prime one another is not news. However, this phenomenon can be exploited to make inferences about the organization of conceptual representations. What types of similarity matter? Although there is evidence that similarity of function, shape, and even manner of manipulation is reflected in semantic memory, evidence for organization on the basis of color similarity is sparse. This lack of evidence is surprising: Intuition suggests that color is a prominent feature of many object concepts. The research reported here clarifies this puzzle and illustrates the dynamic nature of conceptual representations. Our research demonstrates color-based priming (e.g., "emerald" primes "cucumber") in participants who completed a Stroop color-naming task before a priming task. Notably, the size of the Stroop effect predicted the size of the priming effect. When the order of tasks was reversed, priming effects were eliminated. By demonstrating that both extrinsic and intrinsic factors can influence conceptual activation, our findings have implications for theories of semantic memory.

Source: Psychological Science

DOI: 10.1177/0956797611430691

Authors: Eiling Yee, Sarah Z. Ahmed, Sharon L. Thompson-Schill

Institutions: Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, University of Pennsylvania

Language: English

Topic: Categorization, perception, and language

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: G1289958377, Visual Knowledge of Objects, The Organization of Semantic Memory