Exploring the Core of Meaning of Concepts. Influence of Psycholinguistic Variables in a Word Recognition Task

Authors

  • Tomas Torres Barbero Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Psicología ; Consejo Interuniversitario Nacional. Becas de Estimulo a las Formaciones Científicas
  • Gastón Deniau De Langhe Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Psicología
  • Matías Yerro Avincetto Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Psicología
  • Jorge Vivas Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Instituto de Psicología Básica, Aplicada y Tecnología

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46553/RPSI.17.33.2021.p61-80

Keywords:

Core of meaning, Semantic memory, Psycholinguistic variables, Age of Acquisition

Abstract

There still lacks preciseness about the nature of the connection between psycholinguistic variables and the core of conceptual meaning. This article explores the relation between Age of Acquisition (AoA), Imaginability, Semantic richness, Familiarity and Concreteness in the constitution of semantic core meaning. We used a key recognition task, designed with 120 concepts and their first 5 attributes, extracted from the Semantic Attributes Norms in Spanish. 300 students took part in a concept recognition task, where they were asked to recognize certain concepts through different triads of attributes. The most influential variables were AoA and Imaginability. These results are congruent with studies that suggest the AoA as the most appropriate variable to explain results in lexical decisions tasks.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Álvarez, B. y Cuetos, F. (2007). Objective age of acquisition norms for a set of 328 words in Spanish. BRM 39, 377–383. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193006

Amsel, B. D., & Cree, G. S. (2013). Semantic richness, concreteness, and object domain: An electrophysiological study. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 67(2), 117–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029807

Barca, L. Burani, C. y Arduino, L.S (2002) Word naming times and Psycholinguistic norms for Italian nouns. BRMI&C 34, 424-434. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195471

Barsalou, L.W. (2009) Simulation, situated conceptualization, and prediction. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 364, 1281-1289. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0319

Barsalou, L. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(4), 577-660. doi:10.1017/S0140525X99002149

Barsalou, L. (2008) Grounded Cognition. Annu. Rev. Psy. (59), 617–645.https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639

Barsalou, L. (2003) Situated simulation in the human conceptual system. Language and Cognitive Processes, 18:5-6, 513-562.https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960344000026

Bargetto Fernández, M. A. y Riffo Ocares, B. (2019). El reconocimiento de palabras y el acceso léxico: revisión de modelos y pruebas experimentales. Boletín de filología, 54(1), 341-361. https://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-93032019000100341

Borghesani, V. y Piazza, M. (2017). The neuro cognitive representations of symbols: The case of concrete words. Neuropsychologia, 105, 4-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.06.026

Brysbaert, M. y Ellis, A. (2016) Aphasia and age of acquisition: are early-learned words more resilient? Aphasia, Frequency and Language Processing 11 (30). https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2015.1106439

Brysbaert, M., Van Wijnendaele, I. y De Dayne, S. (2000) Age of acquisition effects in semantic processing tasks. Acta Psychologica, 104 (4), 215-216.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-6918(00)00021-4

Buchanan, E., Valentine, K. y Maxwell, N. (2019). English semantic feature production norms: An extended database of 4436 concepts. BRM 51, 1849–1863. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01243-z

Buchanan, E., Holmes, J., Teasley, M. y Hutchison, K. (2012). English semantic wordpair norms and a searchable Web portal for experimental stimulus creation. BRM, 45(3), 746–757. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0284-z

Capitani, E., Laiacona, M., Mahon, B. y Caramazza, A. (2003). What are the facts of semantic category-specific deficits? A critical review of the clinical evidence. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20, 213-261. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643290244000266

Carroll, J. y White, M. (1973). Word frequency and age of acquisition as determiners of picture naming latency. Quart JEP 25, 85–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/14640747308400325

Collins, A. y Loftus, E. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82(6), 407–428. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.82.6.407

Cuetos, F., Ellis, A. y Álvarez, B. (1999). Naming times for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures in Spanish. BRM&C 31, 650-658. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200741

Davis, C. J. y Perea, M. (2005) BuscaPalabras: A program for deriving orthographic and phonological neighborhood statistics and other psycholinguistic indices in Spanish. Behavior Research Methods. 37, 665-671. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192738

Deng, Y., Wang, Y., Qiu, Ch., Hu, Z., Sun, W., Gong, Y., Zhao, X. He, W., y Cao, L. (2021) A Chinese Conceptual Semantic Feature Dataset (CCFD). BRM (preprint). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01525-x

De Deyne, S., Verheyen, S., Ameel, E., Vanpaemel, W., Dry, M. J., Voorspoels, W. y Storms, G. (2008). Exemplar by feature applicability matrices and other Dutch normative data for concepts. BRM 40, 1030–1048. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.4.1030

Devereux, B., Tyler, L., Geertzen, J. y Randall, B. (2014). The Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain (CSLB) concept property norms. BRM 46, 1119–1127. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0420-4

Dewhurst, S. A., Hitch, G. J. y Barry, C. (1998). Separate effects of word frequency and age of acquisition in recognition and recall. JEP: LM&C 24(2), 284–298. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.2.284

Dubossarsky, H., De Deyne, S. y Hills, T. (2017). Quantifying the structure of free association networks across the life span. Developmental Psychology, 53(8),1560–1570. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000347

Ellis, A. y Lambon Ralph, M. (2000). Age of Acquisition Effects in Adult Lexical Processing Reflect Loss of Plasticity in Maturing Systems: Insights from Connectionist Networks. JEP: LM&C 26(2), 1103-1123. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.26.5.1103

Elsherif, M., Catling, J. y Frisson, S. (2020). Two words as one: A multi-naming investigation of the age-of-acquisition effect in compound-word processing. Memory and Cognition 48, 511–525. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-00986-6

Fernández-Coello, A., Havas, V., Juncadella, M., Sierpowska, J., Rodríguez-Fornells, A. y Gabarrós A. (2017). Age of language acquisition and cortical language organization in multilingual patients undergoing awake brain mapping. Journal of Neurosurgery 126(6):1912-1923. https://doi.org/10.3171/2016.5.JNS152791

García Coni, A., Comesaña, A., Piccolo, B. y Vivas, J. (2020). Relaciones conceptuales: Comparación entre niños, adultos jóvenes y adultos mayores. RIP, 13 (1), 59-69. https://reviberopsicologia.ibero.edu.co/article/view/1617

Gardiner, J., Gregg, V. y Hampton, J. (1988). Word frequency and generation effects. JEP: L, M, and C, 14(4), 687–693. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.14.4.687

Gilhooly, K. y Gilhooly, M. (1979). Age-of-acquisition effects in lexical and episodic memory tasks. Memory and Cognition, 7(3), 214–223. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197541

Gilhooly, K. & Logie, R. (1980) Age-of-acquisition, imagery, concreteness, familiarity, and ambiguity measures for 1944 words. Behavior Research methods 12(4). 395-427 https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03201693

González-Nosti, M., Barbón, A., Rodríguez-Ferreiro, J. y Cuetos, F. (2014). Effects of the psycholinguistic variables on the lexical decision task in Spanish: A study with 2,765 words. BRM 46, 517–525. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0383-5

González-Nosti, M. y Cuetos, F. (2009) Influencia de las variables psicolingüísticas sobre el efecto de generación. Psicológica, 30(2): 323-342. https://www.uv.es/psicologica/articulos2.09/10GONZALEZ.pdf

Hernández Muñoz, N. (2014). Categorías en el léxico bilingüe: perspectivas desde el priming semántico y la disponibilidad léxica. RAEL (13) 1, 19-38. Gale Academic OneFile.

Juhasz B, Yap M, Raoul A, Kaye M. (2018). A further examination of word frequency and age-of-acquisition effects in English lexical decision task performance: The role of muñofrequency trajectory. JEP: LM&C 45(1):82-96.

https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000564

Kivisaari, S., van Vliet, M., Hultén, A., Lindh-Knuutila, T., Faisal, A. y Salmelin, R. (2019). Reconstructing meaning from bits of information. Nature Communications 10, 927. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08848-0

Kremer, G., Baroni, M. (2011). A set of semantic norms for German and Italian. BRM 43, 97–109. doi: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-010-0028-x

Lenci, A., Baroni, M., Cazzolli, G. y Marotta G. (2013). BLIND: a set of semantic feature norms from the congenitally blind. BRM 45(4):1218-33. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0323-4

Manoiloff, L., Artstein, M., Canavoso, M., Fernández, L. y Segui, J. (2010) Expanded norms for 400 experimental pictures in an Argentinean Spanish-speaking population. BRM 42(2):452–460. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.2.452

Martínez-Cuitiño, M., Soriano, F., Formoso, J., Borovinsky, G., Ferrari, J., Pontello, N., Barreyro, J.P. y Manes, F. (2018). Procesamiento semántico de conceptos concretos y abstractos en Afasia Progresiva Primaria-variante semántica. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia 8(1) 2018: 63-76.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/RLOG.59530

McRae, K. y Boisvert, S. (1998). Automatic Semantic Similarity Priming. JEP: L, M, and C (24) 3, 558-572. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.3.558

McRae, K., Cree, G., Seidenberg, M. y McNorgan, C. (2005). Semantic feature production norms for a large set of living and nonliving things. BRM, 37(4), 547-559. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192726

Moldovan, C., Ferré, P., Demestre, J. y Sánchez-Casas, R. (2015). Semantic similarity: normative ratings for 185 Spanish noun triplets. BRM 47(3), 788-799. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0501-z

Montefinese, M., Ambrosini, E., Fairfield, B. y Mammarella, N. (2014). The adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) for Italian. BRM, 46(3), 887-903. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0405-3

Morrison, C. M., y Ellis, A. W. (1995). Roles of word frequency and age of acquisition in word naming and lexical decision. JEP: L, M, and C, 21(1), 116–133. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.21.1.116

O'Craven K. y Kanwisher N. (2000). Mental imagery of faces and places activates corresponding stimulus-specific brain regions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12(6):1013-23. https://doi.org/10.1162/08989290051137549

Pexman, P., Hargreaves, I., Siakaluk, P. (2008). There are many ways to be rich: Effects of three measures of semantic richness on visual word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 15, 161–167. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.1.161

Ruts, W., De Deyne, S., Ameel, E., Vanpaemel, W., Verbeemen, T. y Storms, G. (2004). Dutch norm data for 13 semantic categories and 338 exemplars. BRM&C 36(3), 506-515. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195597

Sartori, G., Lombardi, L. y Mattiuzzi, L. (2005). Semantic relevance best predicts normal and abnormal name retrieval. Neuropsychologia, 43(5), 754 –770. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.08.001

Sartori, G., & Lombardi, L. (2004). Semantic relevance and semantic disorders. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 439-452. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.08.028

Sartori, G., Polezzi, D., Mameli, F. y Lombardi, L. (2005). Feature type effects in semantic memory: an event related potentials study. Neuroscience Letters, 390. 139-144. 10.1016/j.neulet.2005.08.015

Smith, E., Shoben, E., y Rips, L. (1974). Structure and process in semantic memory: A featural model for semantic decisions. Psyc Rev 81(3), 214-241. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036351

Snodgrass, J. y Yuditsky, T. (1996). Naming times for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures. BRMI&C 28(4),516–536.

https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200540

Stein, L. y de Azevedo Gomes, C. F. (2009). Normas brasileiras para listas de palavras associadas: associação semântica, concretude, frequência e emocionalidade. Teor. e Pesq. (25) 537-546. Doi: 10.1590/S0102-37722009000400009

Van Loon-Vervoorn A. y Van Der Koppen M.(1988). The Importance of Age of Word Acquisition for Imageability in Word Processing. In: Denis M., Engelkamp J., Richardson J.T.E. (eds) Cognitive and Neuropsychological Approaches to Mental Imagery. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1391-2_9.

Vinson, D.P. Vigliocco, G. (2008) Semantic feature production norms for a large set of concepts of objects and events. Behavior Research Methods (40) 183-190.

Vivas, J., Kogan, B., Romanelli, S., Lizarralde, F. y Corda, L. (2020). A cross-linguistic comparison of Spanish and English semantic norms: Looking at core features. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(2), 285-297. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716419000523

Vivas, J., Kogan, B., Yerro, M., Romanelli, S. y Vivas, L. (2021). Levels in the structure of concepts. Describing the structure of concepts through different feature levels. Journal of Cognitive Psychology. Taylor & Francis ISSN: 2044592X. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2020.1858840

Vivas, J., Martínez, S., Krzemien, D. y Lizarralde, F. (2020). Estabilidad semántica en la producción de atributos semánticos entre adultos mayores y adultos jóvenes. APL 38(2), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/apl/a.7368

Vivas, J. Vivas, L. y MacIntyre, M. (2017) Tipología de atributos ponderada en base a Normas de Atributos Semánticos. Trends in Psychology (25) 2, 843-854. http://dx.doi.org/10.9788/TP2017.2-21Es

Vivas, J., Vivas, L., Comesaña, A., García Coni, A. y Vorano, A. (2017). Spanish semantic feature production norms for 400 concrete concepts. BRM, 49, 3, 1095–1106. doi: 10.3758/s13428-016-0777-2

Vivas, L. Manoiloff, L. Garcia, A. Lizarralde, F. y Vivas, J. (2019). Core semantic links or lexical associations: Assessing the nature of responses Word Association Tasks. Journal of psycholinguistic research 48(2), 243-256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-018-9601-8

Vivas, L., Montefinese, M., Bolognesi, M. y Vivas, J. (2020). Core features: measures and characterization for different languages. Cognitive Processing - International Quarterly of Cognitive Science. Special Topic. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10339-020-00969-5This article is part of the Special Topic on ‘Eliciting Semantic Properties: Methods and Applications’ guest-edited by E. Canessa, S. Chaigneau, B. Devereux, and A. Lenci. Guest editor: Alessandro Lenci (University of Pisa).

Watkins, M. y Gardiner, J. (1979). An appreciation of generate–recognize theory of recall. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 18(6), 687-704. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(79)90397-9

Wulff, D., de Deyne, S., Jones, M. y Mata, R. (2019). New perspectives on the aging lexicón. Trends in cognitive sciences, 23(8), 686-698. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.05.003

Yap, M., Tan, S., Pexman, P. y Hargreaves I. (2011). Is more always better? Effects of semantic richness on lexical decision, speeded pronunciation, and semantic classification. Psych Bull Rev 18, 742–750. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0092-y

Zapico, G. y Vivas, J. (2015). La sinonimia desde una perspectiva lingüístico-cognitiva. Medición de la distancia semántica, Onomázein. Revista de Lingüística, Filología y Traducción 32, 198-211. http://www.onomazein.net/04_NumeroDescarga/n32/PantallaDescarga_32-11.html

Published

05/31/2021

How to Cite

Torres Barbero, T., Deniau De Langhe, G., Yerro Avincetto, M., & Vivas, J. (2021). Exploring the Core of Meaning of Concepts. Influence of Psycholinguistic Variables in a Word Recognition Task. Revista De Psicología, 17(33), 61–80. https://doi.org/10.46553/RPSI.17.33.2021.p61-80

Issue

Section

Articles