Semantic Memory Organization in Second Graders and Adults

Summary

Adults (n = 20) and second-grade children (n = 20) named pictures while trying to ignore words printed inside the pictures. The words were either high or low associates of the pictures, and picture-word pairings either crossed or did not cross conceptual category boundaries. It was found that Ss at both ages experienced significantly more interference from within-category than cross-category printed words. The pattern of associative and categorical interference effects were very similar for the two age groups. It was concluded that the semantic memory organization of second-grade children is based, at least in part, on conceptual category relationships. The results provided no evidence for an age-related change in the relative strength of categorical and associative relationships in semantic memory.