Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Is the Motor or the Garage More Important to the Car? The Difference Between Semantic Associations in Single Word and Sentence Production

  • Published:
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of part-whole (e.g., car-motor) and functional associations (e.g., car-garage) on single word (Experiment 1) and sentence production (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, a classical picture-word task was used. In Experiment 2, the same stimuli and distractors were embedded into a sentence. The relation between target and distractor was either part-whole, functional or unrelated. At single word level, part-whole and functional relations facilitate naming. Additionally, the facilitation effect was stronger for part-whole in comparison to functional associations. During sentence production, facilitation shifted to interference. The difference between both relations disappeared. The findings of the different effects between functional and part-whole associations depend on the length of utterances and highlight the divergent impact of associations. The differences between part-whole and functional associations in single word production might reflect a differential organization of associative links at the conceptual level. In contrast, during sentence production the syntactic processing at the lexical level seem to be more important than types of semantic associations at the conceptual level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdel Rahman R., Melinger A. (2007) When bees hamper the production of honey: Lexical interference from associates in speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 33: 604–614

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Abdel Rahman R., Melinger A. (2009) Semantic context effects in language production: A swinging lexical network proposal and a review. Language and Cognitive Processes 24: 713–734

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alario F.-X., Segui J., Ferrand L. (2000) Semantic and associative priming in picture naming. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 53: 741–764

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baayen R., Piepenbrock R., Rijn H. (1993) The CELEX lexical database (Release 1) [CD-ROM]. Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Baluch B., Besner D. (1991) Visual word recognition—Evidence for strategic control of lexical and non lexical routines in oral reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition 17: 644–652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bölte J., Jorschik A., Zwitserlood P. (2003) Reading yellow speeds up naming a picture of banana: Facilitation and inhibition in picture-word interference. In: Schmalhofer F., Young R. M., Katz G. (Eds.), Proceedings of the European Cognitive Science conference. Mawah, LEA, pp 55–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Caramazza A., Shelton J. R. (1998) Domain-specific knowledge systems in the brain the animate-inanimate distinction. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 10: 1–34

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Costa A., Alario F. X., Caramazza A. (2005) On the categorical nature of the semantic interference effect in the picture-word interference paradigm. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12: 125–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damian M. F., Martin R. C. (1999) Semantic and phonological codes interact in single word production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 25: 345–361

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Estes Z., Golonka S., Jones L. L. (2011) Thematic thinking: The apprehension and consequences of thematic relations. In: Ross B. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 54. Academic Press, Burlington, pp 249–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerstl P., Pribbenow S. (1995) Midwinters, end games, and body parts: A calssification of part-whole relations. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 43: 865–889

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heim S., Eickhoff S. B., Friederici A. D., Amunts K. (2009) Left cytoarchitectonic area 44 supports selection in the mental lexicon during language production. Brain Structure & Function 213: 441–456

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jescheniak J. D., Schriefers H. (2001) Priming effects from phonologically related distractors in picture-word interference. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 54: 371–382

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kalénine S., Peyrin C., Pichat C., Segebarth C., Bonthoux F., Baciu M. (2009) The sensory-motor specificity of taxonomic and thematic conceptual relations: A behavioral and fMRI study. NeuroImage 44: 1152–1162

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kang H., Simpson G. (2001) Local strategic control of information in visual word recognition. Memory & Cognition, 29: 648–655

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kello C., Plaut D., MacWhinney B. (2000) The task dependence of staged versus cascaded processing: an empirical and computational study of Stroop interference in speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 129: 340–361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levelt, W. J., Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A. S. (1999). A theory of lexical access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Science, 22, 1–38; discussion 38–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levelt W. J., Meyer A. S. (2000) Word for word: Multiple lexical access in speech production. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 12(4): 433–452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levelt W. J. (2001) Spoken word production: A theory of lexical access. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98: 13464–13471

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lin E. L., Murphy G. L. (2001) Thematic relations in adults’ concepts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 130: 3–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer A. S. (1996) Lexical access in phrase and sentence production: Results from picture-word interference experiments. Journal of Memory and Language 35: 477–496

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer A. S. (1997) Conceptual influences on grammatical planning units. Language and Cognitive Processes 12: 859–863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moss H. E., Ostrin R. K., Tyler L. K., Marslen-Wilson W. D. (1995) Accessing different types of lexical semantic information: Evidence from priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 21: 863–883

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oldfield R. C. (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9: 97–113

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ratcliff R. (1993) Methods for dealing with reaction time outliers. Psychological Bulletin 114: 510–532

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roelofs A. (1992) A spreading-activation theory of lemma retrieval in speaking. Cognition 42: 107–142

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sachs O., Weis S., Krings T., Huber W., Kircher T. (2008) Categorical and thematic knowledge representation in the brain: neural correlates of taxonomic and thematic conceptual relations. Neuropsychologia 46: 409–418

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sailor K., Brooks P. J., Bruening P. R., Seiger-Gardner L., Guterman M. (2009) Exploring the time course of semantic interference and associative priming in the picture-word interference task. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62: 789–801

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sass K., Krach S., Sachs O., Kircher T. T. J. (2009) Lion-tiger-stripes: Neural correlates of indirect semantic priming across processing modalities. NeuroImage 45: 224–236

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sass K., Heim S., Sachs O., Theede K., Muehlhaus J., Krach S. (2010) Why the leash constrains the dog: Investigating the impact of semantic associations and distractor modality on sentence production. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis 70: 435–453

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schriefers H., Meyer A. S., Levelt W. J. M. (1990) Exploring the time course of lexical access in language production: Picture-word interference studies. Journal of Memory and Language 29: 86–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tabossi P., Laghi L. (1992) Semantic priming in the pronunciation of words in two writing systems: Italian and English. Memory & Cognition, 20: 303–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyler L. K., Moss H. E., Durrant-Peatfield M. R., Levy J. P. (2000) Conceptual structure and the structure of concepts: A distributed account of category-specific deficits. Brain and Language 75: 195–231

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Winston M. E., Chaffin R., Herrmann D. (1987) A taxonomy of part-whole relations. Cognitive Science 11: 417–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

Web References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Juliane Muehlhaus, Stefan Heim, Frank Schneider, Ute Habel & Katharina Sass

  2. Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany

    Stefan Heim

  3. JARA, Translational Brain Medicine, Aachen, Germany

    Juliane Muehlhaus, Stefan Heim, Frank Schneider, Ute Habel & Katharina Sass

  4. Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Olga Sachs

  5. Section Neurological Cognition Research, Department of Neurology, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Stefan Heim

Authors
  1. Juliane Muehlhaus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stefan Heim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Olga Sachs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Frank Schneider
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ute Habel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Katharina Sass
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juliane Muehlhaus.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Muehlhaus, J., Heim, S., Sachs, O. et al. Is the Motor or the Garage More Important to the Car? The Difference Between Semantic Associations in Single Word and Sentence Production. J Psycholinguist Res 42, 37–49 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-012-9209-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-012-9209-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation