Abstract
According to the dual coding theory, differences in the ease of retrieval between concrete and abstract words are related to the exclusive dependence of abstract semantics on linguistic information. Argument structure can be considered a measure of the complexity of the linguistic contexts that accompany a verb. If the retrieval of abstract verbs relies more on the linguistic codes they are associated to, we could expect a larger effect of argument structure for the processing of abstract verbs. In this study, sets of length- and frequency-matched verbs including 40 intransitive verbs, 40 transitive verbs taking simple complements, and 40 transitive verbs taking sentential complements were presented in separate lexical and grammatical decision tasks. Half of the verbs were concrete and half were abstract. Similar results were obtained in the two tasks, with significant effects of imageability and transitivity. However, the interaction between these two variables was not significant. These results conflict with hypotheses assuming a stronger reliance of abstract semantics on linguistic codes. In contrast, our data are in line with theories that link the ease of retrieval with availability and robustness of semantic information.
Highlights
Adults produce longer reaction times and are more error-prone when presented with tasks that involve the processing of abstract, compared to concrete, nouns [1,2,3,4]
Whereas semantic dementia patients present a relative preservation of abstract concepts [5,6], a significant amount of aphasic [7,8,9,10] and dyslexic [11] patients show a relative impairment of abstract words processing
Verbs varying in imageability and argument structure characteristics were presented to healthy volunteers in lexical decision and grammatical decision tasks
Summary
Adults produce longer reaction times and are more error-prone when presented with tasks that involve the processing of abstract, compared to concrete, nouns [1,2,3,4]. The context availability theory [12,13] suggests that abstract and concrete concepts are represented in a single amodal network of abstract symbols or propositions. This theory ascribes the relative ease in the processing of concrete nouns to the greater richness of their meanings, and the availability of more contextual information in semantic memory supporting their processing. Some studies confirming the role of context availability in concrete and abstract word processing support this view [14,15,16]
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