Intelligence-related differences in the relative salience of object-property relationships

Three groups of nonretarded children, ranging in age from 8 to 16 years, and a group of EMR 16-year olds (MA = 10) were asked to verify statements about the properties of animate and inaminate objects. Properties were of four types: intrinsic-action (e.g., "sharks can swim"), extrinsic-action (e.g., "horses can be ridden"), static (e.g., "turtles have shells"), and superordinate category (e.g., "dogs are animals"). Results indicated that retarded subjects, relative to nonretarded subjects of all ages, responded particularly slowly to static property statements when objects were animate and to intrinsic-action properties when objects were inanimate. These data suggest intelligence-related differences in the types of semantic properties that are most strongly associated with particular object concepts and, as such, may be indicative of fundamental differences in the way in which the core meaning of individual concepts is represented in semantic memory.