Taxonomic Knowledge: What Kind and When?

Lucariello, Joan; Kyratzis, Amy; Nelson, Katherine

doi:10.2307/1131248

Cited by 125 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…As discussed in the Introduction, seven patients across different studies (A.Z., R.O.M., and F.B.I. in Crutch & Warrington, 2005, 2007 implicit tasks (e.g., free recall, picture-matching, lexical decision), both children and adults categorize concrete objects in terms of category and association (Blanchet, Dunham, & Dunham, 2001;Hutchison, 2003;Lucariello, Kyratzis, & Nelson, 1992;Lin & Murphy, 2001;Mirman & Graziano, 2012;Murphy, 2001;Waxman & Namy, 1997). For example, in a picture-matching task where children were asked to choose the picture that "goes best with" the target picture from an array of categorical and associatively related concrete objects, children selected both categorical and associative choices (e.g., Blanchet, Dunham, & Dunham, 2001;Waxman & Namy, 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The representation of concrete and abstract concepts: Categorical versus associative relationships.

Geng¹,

Schnur²

2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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In four word-translation experiments, we examined the different representational frameworks theory (Crutch & Warrington, 2005) that concrete words are represented primarily by category whereas abstract words are represented by association. In our experiments, Chinese-English bilingual speakers were presented with an auditory Chinese word and three or four written English words simultaneously and asked to select the English word that corresponded to the auditory word. For both abstract and concrete words, higher error rates and longer response times were observed when the English words were categorically or associatively related compared to the unrelated conditions and the magnitude of the categorical effect was bigger than the associative effect. These results challenge the different representational frameworks theory and suggest that although category and association are important for representing abstract and concrete concepts, category plays a greater role for both types of words.Keywords: Concrete and abstract words; Semantic processing; Semantic categorical and associative effects; Bilingual translation 3 Investigating the representations of concrete (e.g., mouse) and abstract words (e.g., future) has important implications for understanding how our memory of factual information and general knowledge of the world (i.e., semantic memory) is represented. A number of studies show that concrete words are more easily recognized and memorized in various cognitive tasks (e.g., lexical decision, word reading) compared to abstract words (e.g., James, 1975;Kroll & Merves, 1986; Paivio, 1971;Strain, Patterson, & Seidenberg, 1995; see Paivio, 1991, for a review). More importantly, individuals with semantic memory deficits show a selective impairment of concrete knowledge with relatively preserved abstract knowledge or vice versa (e.g., Breedin et al., 1994; Sirigu et al., 1992;Warrington, 1975;Warrington & Shallice, 1984), suggesting that concrete and abstract concepts are represented in a different way.Concepts may be represented by taxonomic categories defined by the overlap in the semantic features between concepts (e.g., ducks and pigeons are in the bird category, as they have wings, feathers and can fly), or alternatively, by the links between concepts that tend to co-occur in language or which form familiar scenes or events (by association, e.g., "The mouse ate the cheese"). Most research has focused on concrete concepts, showing that semantic category and association both play a key role in representing concrete concepts (e.g., Kalénine et al., 2009;Sachs, Weis, Krings, Huber, & Kircher, 2008;Sachs, et al., 2011;Schwartz, et al., 2011; for reviews, see Hutchison, 2003;Mahon & Caramazza, 2009;Martin, 2007), but the representations of abstract concepts are less explored. The recent different representational frameworks theory proposes that category and association are important for representing both concrete and abstract words but concrete words rely more on category whereas abstract words rely more on ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The representation of concrete and abstract concepts: Categorical versus associative relationships.

Geng¹,

Schnur²

2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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“…Sell (1992) has used both an oral word association task and a match-to-sample task with children aged from 2 to 10 years. Lucariello et al (1992) have used an oral word association task, a production task, and a forced-picture-choice task with children aged 4 and 7 years and with adults. The same authors have stressed that the picture-matching-task yields thematic relations more frequently than verbal tasks, which yield taxonomic relations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This preference is accounted for by the way children deal with their environment as they build up concepts from everyday actions and events: i.e., from situations or themes (Mandler, 1992(Mandler, , 1998Nelson, 1986). In this view, the early use of thematic relations helps children's later acquisition of more abstract, hierarchical relations such as those required by the taxonomic conceptual organization (Lucariello & Nelson, 1985;Lucariello, Kyratzis, & Nelson, 1992). Thus, according to many authors, once children are able to organize their knowledge in a hierarchical structure, they undergo a thematic-to-taxonomic shift which is responsible for their relying on the taxonomic organization of conceptual knowledge in their dealings with the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Situation bounded conceptual organization in children: from action to spatial relations

Borghi

Caramelli

2003

Cognitive Development

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This study performed on children aged 5, 8, and 10 years, deals with conceptual knowledge organization using a word association task. The results show that, at all these ages, the production of thematic relations outnumbers that of taxonomic relations; no thematic-to-taxonomic shift occurs. While children aged 5 years produce more action, temporal, and event relations, older children produce more spatial and property relations. An increased capacity for abstraction allows children aged 8 and 10 years to capture the properties of objects and the spatial layout where objects can be located independently from the specific actions occasionally taking place there. With age, even if events and actions lose their primacy, the perceptual and contextual dimensions of objects play a role in shaping children's knowledge. The results suggest the opportunity to rethink the relevance of the cognitive economy principle in children's conceptual organization.

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“…In addition, script categories are based on the roles that items play in an event or routine such as a birthday party or breakfast-time (e.g. Lucariello, Kyratzis, & Nelson, 1992;Nelson, 1986Nelson, , 1988. For example, the script category of breakfast foods might include pancakes and bacon not because they share common properties, but because they play the same role in a routine, what is eaten at breakfast.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's evaluative categories and inductive inferences within the domain of food

Nguyen

2008

Infant and Child Development

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Evaluative categories include items that share the same value-laden assessment. Given that these categories have not been examined extensively within the child concepts literature, the present research explored evaluative categorization and induction within the domain of food as a test case. Specifically, two studies examined the categories of healthy and junky foods in children aged 4 and 7 years. Study 1 showed that by aged 4 years, children appropriately apply the evaluative categories of healthy and junky foods to a variety of different foods. Study 2 showed that by age 4 years, children also selectively use the evaluative categories of healthy and junky foods for inductive inferences about the human body, but not for arbitrary or unrelated inferences. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of evaluative processing in young children's categorization and induction.

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Taxonomic Knowledge: What Kind and When?

Cited by 125 publications

References 17 publications

The representation of concrete and abstract concepts: Categorical versus associative relationships.

The representation of concrete and abstract concepts: Categorical versus associative relationships.

Situation bounded conceptual organization in children: from action to spatial relations

Children's evaluative categories and inductive inferences within the domain of food

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