Semantic congruity and lexical marking in symbolic comparisons: An expectancy hypothesis

Lexical marking and semantic congruity effects were investigated in four symbolic size comparison experiments. Predictions followed from an expectancy hypothesis suggested by results of recent comparative judgment studies. According to the present position, lexical marking and semantic congruity should be mutually exclusive effects in such tasks, and the demonstration of either dependent upon the order in which the stimuli and the comparative term are evaluated. When the comparative precedes the stimuli, an expectancy is created whereby the subject is more likely to be prepared for, say, large items following the comparative “larger” and small items following the comparative “smaller.” In addition, the usual advantage of unmarked as compared to marked comparisons should be offset by the initial processing of the comparative. As predicted, the comparative-stimulus presentation order produced a significant semantic congruity effect and no effect of lexical marking in Experiment 1. Conversely, when stimuli precede the comparative, or are presented simultaneously with it, no expectancy should be created, as the items are immediately available to the subject, and the semantic congruity effect should not be obtained. Upon presentation of the comparative, however, unmarked comparisons should be easier than marked comparisons. Experiments 2 and 4 confirmed these expectations, as significant lexical marking effects were obtained and significant congruity effects were not. These findings are contrary to predictions derived from a semantic coding interpretation of the symbolic comparison process.