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Privileged access to action for objects relative to words

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review volume 9, pages 348–355 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

We compared action (pour or twist?) and contextual/semantic (found in kitchen?) decisions made to pictures of objects, nonobjects, and words. Although there was no advantage for objects over words in contextual/semantic decisions, there was an advantage for objects over words and nonobjects in action decisions. For objects, both action and contextual/semantic decisions were faster than naming; for words, the opposite occurred. These results extend the early results of Potter and Faulconer (1975) that there is privileged access to semantic memory for objects relative to that for words and privileged access to phonology for words. Our data suggest that, for objects, there is privileged access to action knowledge rather than to all forms of semantic knowledge and that this is contingent on learned associations between objects and actions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuropsychologie et Neurobiologie du Vieillissement Cérébral, INSERM, l’Unité 324, 2 ter, rue d’Alésia, 75014, Paris, France

    Hanna Chainay

  2. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England

    Glyn W. Humphreys

Authors
  1. Hanna Chainay
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  2. Glyn W. Humphreys
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Correspondence to Hanna Chainay.

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This work was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council, the Welcome Trust, and the Fyssen Foundation.

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Chainay, H., Humphreys, G.W. Privileged access to action for objects relative to words. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9, 348–355 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196292

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196292

Keywords

  • Semantic Memory
  • Naming Task
  • Action Decision
  • Action Knowledge
  • Semantic Knowledge