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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
Published on: November 2, 2012
Can imageability help us draw the line between storage and composition?
Elizabeth L Prado1, Michael T Ullman
1Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
Abstract:
Language requires both storage and composition. However, exactly what is retrieved from memory and what is assembled remains controversial, especially for inflected words. Here, "imageability effects" is introduced as a new diagnostic of storage and a complement to frequency effects. In 2 studies of past-tense morphology, more reliable imageability and frequency effects were found on irregulars than on regulars. An interaction with sex was also observed: Males but not females showed more reliable frequency and imageability effects for irregulars than for regulars; females but not males showed signs of storage for regulars, particularly among higher frequency forms. Overall, the findings validate imageability effects as another diagnostic of storage and suggest that the line between storage and computation is not a simple function; rather, it depends upon the interplay of both item- and subject-specific factors.
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