Abstract
The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether searching for a word that has a particular attribute (a fruit that is yellow) involves a different process than searching for a word whose name has a particular form (a fruit whose name begins with “p”). Ss saw category nouns paired with adjectives or letter restrictors presented on a series of blocked trials and a series of mixed trials. The Ss had to produce a word that fell in the space defined by the noun and the restricting adjective or letter. RT was fastest when trials were blocked and when a letter followed the presentation of the noun. This finding suggested the existence of two retrieval plans that can be executed when S has knowledge of the forthcoming type of item.
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The authors are extremely grateful to Bert Green for his statistical advice and to Alfonso Caramazza for discussing the whole paper with us.
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Grober, E.H., Loftus, E.F. Semantic memory: Searching for attributes vs searching for names. Memory & Cognition 2, 413–416 (1974). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196897
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196897