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Dominance and noncommutativity effects in concept conjunctions: extensional or intensional basis?
G Storms1, P de Boeck, I Van Mechelen
1Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium.
Memory & Cognition
|November 1, 1993
Summary
Dominance effects in concept descriptions were clear across membership and feature importance ratings. Noncommutativity effects were weaker, mainly appearing in membership ratings, suggesting an extensional basis for both phenomena.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Linguistics
- Concept Formation
Background:
- Investigating how humans process and describe conjunctive concepts.
- Understanding asymmetry phenomena in language and cognition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine dominance and noncommutativity effects in relative clause descriptions.
- To analyze these effects at both extensional (membership) and intensional (feature importance) levels.
Main Methods:
- Studied five conjunctive concept pairs (e.g., birds and pets).
- Utilized membership ratings for extensional analysis.
- Employed feature-importance ratings for intensional analysis.
Main Results:
- A significant dominance effect was observed in both membership and feature-importance ratings.
- Noncommutativity effects were infrequent, primarily noted in membership ratings.
- Feature-importance ratings showed minimal evidence of noncommutativity.
Conclusions:
- Dominance effects are robust and present at both cognitive levels.
- Noncommutativity effects are less pronounced and context-dependent.
- Findings suggest an extensional basis for both dominance and noncommutativity in concept description.