title: Clarifying the nature of the distinctiveness by domain interaction in conceptual structure: comment on Cree, McNorgan, and McRae (2006).
abstract: The conceptual structure account of semantic memory (CSA; L. K. Tyler & H. E. Moss, 2001) claims that feature correlation (the degree to which features co-occur) and feature distinctiveness (the number of concepts in which a feature occurs) interact with domains of knowledge (e.g., living vs. nonliving) such that the distinctive features of nonliving things are more highly correlated than the distinctive features of living things. Evidence for (B. Randall, H. E. Moss, J. M. Rodd, M. Greer, & L. K. Tyler, 2004) and against this claim (G. S. Cree, C. McNorgan, & K. McRae, 2006) has been reported. This comment outlines the CSA, discusses Cree et al.'s (2006) critiques of the Randall et al. (2004) experiments and the CSA, and reports new analyses of property norm and behavioral data, which replicate the results reported by Randall et al. (2004).
authors.affiliation: Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Kirsten I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Angeliki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salamoura
authors.forename: Billi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Randall
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moss
authors.forename: Lorraine K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Tyler
mesh_terms: D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics; D012718:Set, Psychology