title: Structure at every scale: A semantic network account of the similarities between unrelated concepts.
abstract: Similarity plays an important role in organizing the semantic system. However, given that similarity cannot be defined on purely logical grounds, it is important to understand how people perceive similarities between different entities. Despite this, the vast majority of studies focus on measuring similarity between very closely related items. When considering concepts that are very weakly related, little is known. In this article, we present 4 experiments showing that there are reliable and systematic patterns in how people evaluate the similarities between very dissimilar entities. We present a semantic network account of these similarities showing that a spreading activation mechanism defined over a word association network naturally makes correct predictions about weak similarities, whereas, though simpler, models based on direct neighbors between word pairs derived using the same network cannot. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors: Computational Cognitive Science Lab, School of Psychology, University of Adelaide.
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: De Deyne
authors: University of New South Wales.
authors: Daniel J
authors: DJ
authors: Navarro
authors: Computational Cognitive Science Lab, School of Psychology, University of Adelaide.
authors: Amy
authors: A
authors: Perfors
authors: Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven.
authors: Gert
authors: G
authors: Storms
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult