Retrieval of words from subordinate and superordinate categories in semantic hierarchies

Abstract

Retrieval from long-term memory was investigated in an experiment in which S was shown a category name and asked to respond with a word belonging to the category (e.g., animal—horse, bird—robin). The reaction time (RT) taken to retrieve a member of a given category was not significantly different from the time taken to retrieve a member of a superset of that category. For example, Ss could produce an instance of the category “bird” as quickly as they could produce an instance of the category “animal.” The time taken to retrieve a category member was found to be strongly related to the Thorndike-Lorge frequency of the most frequent category member. The data support the notion of a semantic organization in which the category name can be located directly, rather than being accessible only via a search along a hierarchical path.