In the Absence of Animacy: Superordinate Category Structure Affects Subordinate Label Verification
Abstract
Theoretical accounts as well as behavioral studies reporting animacy effects offer inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results. A possible explanation for these inconsistencies may be inadvertent biases in the stimuli selected for test - with category-specific effects driven by characteristics of test stimuli other than animacy per se. In this study, we pit animacy against feature structure (intra-item variability), in a picture-word matching task. For unimpaired adults, regardless of whether objects were from animate (mammals; insects) or inanimate (clothes; musical instruments) superordinate categories, participants were faster to match basic level labels with objects from categories with low intra-item variability (mammals; clothes) than from categories with high intra-item variability (insects; instruments). Thus, pitting animacy against variability allowed us to clarify that observable differences in processing speed between animals and instruments are systematically driven b...y the intra-item variability of the superordinate categories, and not by animacy itself.
Source:
PLoS One, 2013, 8, 12Publisher:
- Public Library Science, San Francisco
Funding / projects:
- Psychological foundations of mental health: hereditary and environmental factors (RS-179006)
- Fundamental cognitive processes and functions (RS-179033)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083282
ISSN: 1932-6203
PubMed: 24376678
WoS: 000328745100105
Scopus: 2-s2.0-84893476735
Institution/Community
Psihologija / PsychologyTY - JOUR AU - Ilić, Olivera AU - Ković, Vanja AU - Styles, Suzy J. PY - 2013 UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/1601 AB - Theoretical accounts as well as behavioral studies reporting animacy effects offer inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results. A possible explanation for these inconsistencies may be inadvertent biases in the stimuli selected for test - with category-specific effects driven by characteristics of test stimuli other than animacy per se. In this study, we pit animacy against feature structure (intra-item variability), in a picture-word matching task. For unimpaired adults, regardless of whether objects were from animate (mammals; insects) or inanimate (clothes; musical instruments) superordinate categories, participants were faster to match basic level labels with objects from categories with low intra-item variability (mammals; clothes) than from categories with high intra-item variability (insects; instruments). Thus, pitting animacy against variability allowed us to clarify that observable differences in processing speed between animals and instruments are systematically driven by the intra-item variability of the superordinate categories, and not by animacy itself. PB - Public Library Science, San Francisco T2 - PLoS One T1 - In the Absence of Animacy: Superordinate Category Structure Affects Subordinate Label Verification IS - 12 VL - 8 DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0083282 ER -
@article{ author = "Ilić, Olivera and Ković, Vanja and Styles, Suzy J.", year = "2013", abstract = "Theoretical accounts as well as behavioral studies reporting animacy effects offer inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results. A possible explanation for these inconsistencies may be inadvertent biases in the stimuli selected for test - with category-specific effects driven by characteristics of test stimuli other than animacy per se. In this study, we pit animacy against feature structure (intra-item variability), in a picture-word matching task. For unimpaired adults, regardless of whether objects were from animate (mammals; insects) or inanimate (clothes; musical instruments) superordinate categories, participants were faster to match basic level labels with objects from categories with low intra-item variability (mammals; clothes) than from categories with high intra-item variability (insects; instruments). Thus, pitting animacy against variability allowed us to clarify that observable differences in processing speed between animals and instruments are systematically driven by the intra-item variability of the superordinate categories, and not by animacy itself.", publisher = "Public Library Science, San Francisco", journal = "PLoS One", title = "In the Absence of Animacy: Superordinate Category Structure Affects Subordinate Label Verification", number = "12", volume = "8", doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0083282" }
Ilić, O., Ković, V.,& Styles, S. J.. (2013). In the Absence of Animacy: Superordinate Category Structure Affects Subordinate Label Verification. in PLoS One Public Library Science, San Francisco., 8(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083282
Ilić O, Ković V, Styles SJ. In the Absence of Animacy: Superordinate Category Structure Affects Subordinate Label Verification. in PLoS One. 2013;8(12). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083282 .
Ilić, Olivera, Ković, Vanja, Styles, Suzy J., "In the Absence of Animacy: Superordinate Category Structure Affects Subordinate Label Verification" in PLoS One, 8, no. 12 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083282 . .