Effects of perceptual and conceptual similarity in semantic priming

Summary The study investigates the different contributions to semantic priming of two components of the semantic representation underlying a word. The two components are perceptually based information and conceptually based information. Perceptual information is based on physical attributes such as shape or color, while conceptual information consists of more abstract elements such as functional attributes. The question asked in this study was whether both components would produce an effect in semantic priming. Pairs of words either related because of a conceptual property (banana-apple), a perceptual property (ball-apple), or both because of a perceptual and conceptual property (cherry-apple) were presented as prime and target in a lexical decision and a word-naming task. The results showed independent contributions of perceptual and conceptual attributes to semantic priming.This research was supported by a grant from the Dutch Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO). All three authors are senior authors and have contributed to all parts of the project.