What makes words special? Words as unmotivated cues
What makes words special? Words as unmotivated cues
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cognition.2015.06.008
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发表时间：
2015-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Lupyan, Gary
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Edmiston, Pierce;Lupyan, Gary
语言标签，如“狗”和“吉他”，比相应的环境声音（如狗叫或吉他弹奏）更有效地激活概念性知识，尽管两者都是狗和吉他类别的明确线索（Lupyan & Thompson-Schill, 2012）。我们假设，标签的这种优势之所以出现，是因为词形与其他线索不同，它不会随着指代物的动机而变化。吉他的声音会让听者知道吉他的类型（电吉他、原声吉他等等）。另一方面，“吉他”这个词可以不指定吉他的类型。我们认为，因此，标签获得了提示更抽象的心理表征的能力，促进了对类别成员的有效处理。相比之下，环境声音激活的表征与声音的具体原因联系更紧密。我们的研究结果表明，当听到狗叫或吉他弹奏等环境声音时，人们会不由自主地在特定的时间、特定的状态下激活某一类别的特定实例，这可以通过线索图片匹配任务（实验1-2）的反应时间模式和线索与任务无关的任务（实验3）的眼球运动模式来衡量。相比之下，标签以一种更抽象、非语境化的方式激活概念，我们认为这种差异可以用标签作为“无动机线索”来解释。(C) 2015 Elsevier B.V.版权所有
Verbal labels, such as the words "dog" and "guitar," activate conceptual knowledge more effectively than corresponding environmental sounds, such as a dog bark or a guitar strum, even though both are unambiguous cues to the categories of dogs and guitars (Lupyan & Thompson-Schill, 2012). We hypothesize that this advantage of labels emerges because word-forms, unlike other cues, do not vary in a motivated way with their referent. The sound of a guitar cannot help but inform a listener to the type of guitar making it (electric, acoustic, etc.). The word "guitar" on the other hand, can leave the type of guitar unspecified. We argue that as a result, labels gain the ability to cue a more abstract mental representation, promoting efficient processing of category members. In contrast, environmental sounds activate representations that are more tightly linked to the specific cause of the sound. Our results show that upon hearing environmental sounds such as a dog bark or guitar strum, people cannot help but activate a particular instance of a category, in a particular state, at a particular time, as measured by patterns of response times on cue-picture matching tasks (Exps. 1-2) and eye-movements in a task where the cues are task-irrelevant (Exp. 3). In comparison, labels activate concepts in a more abstract, decontextualized way a difference that we argue can be explained by labels acting as "unmotivated cues". (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.