Analysis of the semantic representations of living and nonliving concepts: A normative study.
Current feature-based semantic memory models assume that the semantic representations of concepts differ systematically across living and nonliving categories and that such differences account for the emergence of category-specific semantic deficits in brain-damaged people. To assess some of the different models' main assumptions about structural differences at the semantic feature level in the two major semantic domains, we administrated a feature-listing task to normal young volunteers on 64 concepts drawn from living and nonliving semantic categories. We investigated whether feature correlation, a variable with a crucial role in the emergence of category-specific deficits, should be computed as a concept-dependent or as a concept-independent measure, and we chose the former. We also addressed the issue of a psychological counterpart of feature production frequency. Finally, we analysed the database obtained from the feature-listing tasks, looked at cross-domain differences for correlation, feature frequency, distinctiveness, and feature type, and discussed the implications of these findings for current semantic memory models.
IRCCS S. Lucia, Roma, Italy.
Gian Daniele
GD
Zannino
Roberta
R
Perri
Patrizio
P
Pasqualetti
Carlo
C
Caltagirone
Giovanni A
GA
Carlesimo