The general/specific breakdown of semantic memory and the nature of superordinate knowledge: Insights from superordinate and basic-level feature norms

Abstract

The deterioration of semantic memory usually proceeds from more specific to more general superordinate categories, although rarer cases of superordinate knowledge impairment have also been reported. The nature of superordinate knowledge and the explanation of these two semantic impairments were evaluated from the analysis of superordinate and basic-level feature norms. The results show that, in comparison to basic-level concepts, superordinate concepts are not generally less informative and have similar feature distinctiveness and proportion of individual sensory features, but their features are less shared by their members. Results are in accord with explanations based on feature connection weights and/or concept confusability for the superordinate advantage cases. Results especially support an explanation for superordinate impairments in terms of higher semantic control requirements as related to features being less shared between concept members. Implications for patients with semantic impairments are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Semantic memory
• Superordinate knowledge
• Memory deterioration
• Feature norms

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Centro de Investigação em Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa. I thank K. McRae, G. Cree, A. Borghi, and G. Sartori for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of the paper. I also thank D. Ferreira for his help on data collection.