Abstract
Symbolic comparisons of animal intelligence and pleasantness were investigated in five experiments using words and pictures as stimuli. Symbolic distance effects occurred in all experiments. Picture-word effects depended on the experimental design. Mean intelligence comparison reaction time (RT) did not differ for pictures and words when the pairs were presented to independent groups. With repeated measures, mean RT was faster for pictures than for words, but only on the second block of trials. This involved an asymmetrical transfer effect, so that word comparisons on the first trial block greatly facilitated picture comparisons on the second block, whereas picture comparisons did not facilitate subsequent word comparisons. Pleasantness comparisons showed a similar asymmetrical transfer pattern but differed from intelligence comparisons in that the mean RTs were faster with pictures than with words, even with an infinite item set and without prior exposure to the other class of material. The results are discussed in terms of dual coding and other models of symbolic comparisons.
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This research was supported by Grant A0087 from the National Research Council of Canada.
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Paivio, A., Marschark, M. Comparative judgments of animal intelligence and pleasantness. Memory & Cognition 8, 39–48 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197550
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197550