1
|
Reilly J, Shain C, Borghesani V, Kuhnke P, Vigliocco G, Peelle JE, Mahon BZ, Buxbaum LJ, Majid A, Brysbaert M, Borghi AM, De Deyne S, Dove G, Papeo L, Pexman PM, Poeppel D, Lupyan G, Boggio P, Hickok G, Gwilliams L, Fernandino L, Mirman D, Chrysikou EG, Sandberg CW, Crutch SJ, Pylkkänen L, Yee E, Jackson RL, Rodd JM, Bedny M, Connell L, Kiefer M, Kemmerer D, de Zubicaray G, Jefferies E, Lynott D, Siew CSQ, Desai RH, McRae K, Diaz MT, Bolognesi M, Fedorenko E, Kiran S, Montefinese M, Binder JR, Yap MJ, Hartwigsen G, Cantlon J, Bi Y, Hoffman P, Garcea FE, Vinson D. What we mean when we say semantic: Toward a multidisciplinary semantic glossary. Psychon Bull Rev 2024:10.3758/s13423-024-02556-7. [PMID: 39231896 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-024-02556-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/19/2024] [Indexed: 09/06/2024]
Abstract
Tulving characterized semantic memory as a vast repository of meaning that underlies language and many other cognitive processes. This perspective on lexical and conceptual knowledge galvanized a new era of research undertaken by numerous fields, each with their own idiosyncratic methods and terminology. For example, "concept" has different meanings in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. As such, many fundamental constructs used to delineate semantic theories remain underspecified and/or opaque. Weak construct specificity is among the leading causes of the replication crisis now facing psychology and related fields. Term ambiguity hinders cross-disciplinary communication, falsifiability, and incremental theory-building. Numerous cognitive subdisciplines (e.g., vision, affective neuroscience) have recently addressed these limitations via the development of consensus-based guidelines and definitions. The project to follow represents our effort to produce a multidisciplinary semantic glossary consisting of succinct definitions, background, principled dissenting views, ratings of agreement, and subjective confidence for 17 target constructs (e.g., abstractness, abstraction, concreteness, concept, embodied cognition, event semantics, lexical-semantic, modality, representation, semantic control, semantic feature, simulation, semantic distance, semantic dimension). We discuss potential benefits and pitfalls (e.g., implicit bias, prescriptiveness) of these efforts to specify a common nomenclature that other researchers might index in specifying their own theoretical perspectives (e.g., They said X, but I mean Y).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Cory Shain
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - Philipp Kuhnke
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | | | | | - Laurel J Buxbaum
- Thomas Jefferson University, Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA, USA
| | | | | | | | | | - Guy Dove
- University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA
| | - Liuba Papeo
- Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University Claude-Bernard Lyon, Lyon, France
| | | | | | | | - Paulo Boggio
- Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Eiling Yee
- University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Ken McRae
- Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Melvin J Yap
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Gesa Hartwigsen
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Yanchao Bi
- University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
3
|
Montefinese M, Gregori L, Ravelli AA, Varvara R, Radicioni DP. CONcreTEXT norms: Concreteness ratings for Italian and English words in context. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0293031. [PMID: 37862357 PMCID: PMC10588859 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Concreteness is a fundamental dimension of word semantic representation that has attracted more and more interest to become one of the most studied variables in the psycholinguistic and cognitive neuroscience literature in the last decade. Concreteness effects have been found at both the brain and the behavioral levels, but they may vary depending on the constraints of the context and task demands. In this study, we collected concreteness norms for English and Italian words presented in different context sentences to allow better control and manipulation of concreteness in future psycholinguistic research. First, we observed high split-half correlations and Cronbach's alpha coefficients, suggesting that our ratings were highly reliable and can be used in Italian- and English-speaking populations. Second, our data indicate that the concreteness ratings are related to the lexical density and accessibility of the sentence in both English and Italian. We also found that the concreteness of words in isolation was highly correlated with that of words in context. Finally, we analyzed differences between nouns and verbs in concreteness ratings without significant effects. Our new concreteness norms of words in context are a valuable source of information for future research in both the English and Italian language. The complete database is available on the Open Science Framework (doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/U3PC4).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria Montefinese
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Gregori
- Department of Literature and Philosophy, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Andrea Amelio Ravelli
- Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Rossella Varvara
- Department of French, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | | |
Collapse
|