Words do not just label concepts: activating superordinate categories through labels, lists, and definitions

References

• Athanasopoulos, P., & Casaponsa, A. (2020). The Whorfian brain: Neuroscientific approaches to linguistic relativity. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 37(5–6), 393–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2020.1769050
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Barsalou, L. W. (1982). Context-independent and context-dependent information in concepts. Memory & Cognition, 10(1), 82–93. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197629
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Barsalou, L. W. (1983). Ad hoc categories. Memory & Cognition, 11(3), 211–227. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196968
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Barsalou, L. W. (1991). Deriving categories to achieve goals. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 27, 1–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60120-6
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2014). lme4: Linear mixed-effects models using S4 classes. R package version 1.1-7. http://CRANR-project.org/package=lme4.
   Google Scholar
• Beavers, J., & Koontz-Garboden, A. (2020). The roots of verbal meaning. Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Bierwisch, M., & Schreuder, R. (1992). From concepts to lexical items. Cognition, 42(1–3), 23–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(92)90039-K
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Binder, J. R., & Desai, R. H. (2011). The neurobiology of semantic memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(11), 527–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.10.001
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Blasi, D. E., Henrich, J., Adamou, E., Kemmerer, D., & Majid, A. (2022). Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(12), 1153–1170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.09.015
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bojanowski, P., Grave, E., Joulin, A., & Mikolov, T. (2017). Enriching word vectors with subword information. Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 5, 135–146. https://doi.org/10.1162/tacl_a_00051
   Google Scholar
• Boleda, G. (2020). Distributional semantics and linguistic theory. Annual Review of Linguistics, 6(1), 213–234. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030303
   Google Scholar
• Bolognesi, M. (2020). Where words get their meaning: Cognitive processing and distributional modelling of word meaning in first and second language (Vol. 23). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
   Google Scholar
• Bolognesi, M., & Caselli, T. (2022). Specificity ratings for Italian data. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01974-6
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Chrysikou, E. G. (2006). When shoes become hammers: Goal-derived categorization training enhances problem-solving performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32(4), 935. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.32.4.935
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cordoba, S. (2022). Non-binary gender identities: The language of becoming. Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
   Google Scholar
• Davies, M. (2023). The Corpus of Contemporary American English: 450 million words, 1990-present. http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/.
   Google Scholar
• Edmiston, P., & Lupyan, G. (2015). What makes words special? Words as unmotivated cues. Cognition, 143, 93–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.06.008
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Eimas, P. D., & Quinn, P. C. (1994). Studies on the formation of perceptually based basic-level categories in young infants. Child Development, 65(3), 903–917. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131427
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Elbourne, P. (2011). Meaning: A slim guide to semantics. Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Enfield, N. (2022). Language vs. Reality: Why language is good for lawyers and bad for scientists. MIT Press.
   Google Scholar
• Evans, N., & Levinson, S. C. (2009). The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32(5), 429–448. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999094X
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Forder, L., & Lupyan, G. (2019). Hearing words changes color perception: Facilitation of color discrimination by verbal and visual cues. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(7), 1105–1123. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000560
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Gliozzi, V., Mayor, J., Hu, J.-F., & Plunkett, K. (2009). Labels as features (not names) for infant categorization: A neurocomputational approach. Cognitive Science, 33(4), 709–738. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01026.x
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Grimshaw, J. B. (2005). Words and structure: Center for the study of language and information. Stanford University.
   Google Scholar
• Jackendoff, R. (1983). Semantics and cognition (Vol. 8). MIT Press.
   Google Scholar
• Keller, R. (1998). A theory of linguistic signs. Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Kemmerer, D. (2019). Concepts in the brain: The view from cross-linguistic diversity. Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Kemp, C., Xu, Y., & Regier, T. (2018). Semantic typology and efficient communication. Annual Review of Linguistics, 4(1), 109–128. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011817-045406
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kumar, A. A. (2021). Semantic memory: A review of methods, models, and current challenges. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28(1), 40–80. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01792-x
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B., & Christensen, R. H. (2017). Lmertest package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software, 82(13), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Stanford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Levinson, S. C. (1997). From outer to inner space: Linguistic categories and non-linguistic thinking. In J. Nuyts, & E. Pederson (Eds.), Language and conceptualization (pp. 13–45). Cambridge University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Levinson, S. C., & Wilkins, D. P. (2006). Grammars of space: Explorations in cognitive diversity (Vol. 6). Cambridge University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Lewis, M., Colunga, E., & Lupyan, G. (2021). Superordinate word knowledge predicts longitudinal vocabulary growth. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 43, 321–326.
   Google Scholar
• Luke, S. G. (2017). Evaluating significance in linear mixed-effects models in R. Behavior Research Methods, 49(4), 1494–1502. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-016-0809-y
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lupyan, G. (2008). The conceptual grouping effect: Categories matter (and named categories matter more). Cognition, 108(2), 566–577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.03.009
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lupyan, G. (2017). The paradox of the universal triangle: Concepts, language, and prototypes. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(3), 389–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1130730
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lupyan, G., Abdel Rahman, R., Boroditsky, L., & Clark, A. (2020). Effects of language on visual perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(11), 930–944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.08.005
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lupyan, G., & Spivey, M. J. (2010). Redundant spoken labels facilitate perception of multiple items. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(8), 2236–2253. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196698
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lupyan, G., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2012). The evocative power of words: Activation of concepts by verbal and nonverbal means. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(1), 170. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024904
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Majid, A., Boster, J. S., & Bowerman, M. (2008). The cross-linguistic categorization of everyday events: A study of cutting and breaking. Cognition, 109(2), 235–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.08.009
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Majid, A., Roberts, S. G., Cilissen, L., Emmorey, K., Nicodemus, B., O’Grady, L., Woll, B., LeLan, B., de Sousa, H., Cansler, B. L., Shayan, S., de Vos, C., Senft, G., Razak, R. A., Fedden, S., Tufvesson, S., Dingemanse, M., Ozturk, O., Brown, P., … Levinson, S. C. (2018). Differential coding of perception in the world’s languages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(45), 11369–11376. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1720419115
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Malt, B. C. (1995). Category coherence in cross-cultural perspective. Cognitive Psychology, 29(2), 85–148. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1995.1013
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Malt, B. C. (2019). Words, thoughts, and brains. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2019.1599335
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Malt, B. C. (2024). Representing the world in language and thought. Topics in Cognitive Science, 16, 6–24.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Malt, B. C., Gennari, S., Imai, M., Ameel, E., Tsuda, N., & Majid, A. (2008). Talking about walking: Biomechanics and the language of locomotion. Psychological Science, 19(3), 232–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02074.x
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Malt, B. C., & Majid, A. (2013). How thought is mapped into words. WIRES Cognitive Science, 4(6), 583–597. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1251
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Malt, B. C., Sloman, S. A., Gennari, S., Shi, M., & Wang, Y. (1999). Knowing versus naming: Similarity and the linguistic categorization of artifacts. Journal of Memory and Language, 40(2), 230–262. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1998.2593
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Martin, A. (2016). Grapes—Grounding representations in action, perception, and emotion systems: How object properties and categories are represented in the human brain. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(4), 979–990. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0842-3
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mauri, C. (2017). Building and interpreting ad hoc categories: A linguistic analysis. In J. Blochowiak, C. Grisot, S. Durrleman, & C. Laenzlinger (Eds.), Formal models in the study of language: Applications in interdisciplinary contexts (pp. 297–326). Springer International Publishing.
   Google Scholar
• Mauri, C., & Sansò, A. (2018). Linguistic strategies for ad hoc categorization: Theoretical assessment and cross-linguistic variation. Folia Linguistica, 52(39), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1515/flih-2018-0001
   Google Scholar
• Murphy, G. L. (2002). The big book of concepts. MIT Press.
   Google Scholar
• Patterson, K., Nestor, P. J., & Rogers, T. T. (2007). Where do you know what you know? The representation of semantic knowledge in the human brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8(12), 976–987. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2277
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pomerantz, A. M. (2023). My psychology (3rd ed.). Worth Publishers.
   Google Scholar
• Pomiechowska, B., & Gliga, T. (2018). Lexical acquisition through category matching: 12-month-old infants associate words to visual categories. Psychological Science, 30(2), 288–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618817506
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pustejovsky, J. (1995). The generative lexicon. MIT Press.
   Google Scholar
• Ralph, M. A. L., Jefferies, E., Patterson, K., & Rogers, T. T. (2017). The neural and computational bases of semantic cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(1), 42–55. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.150
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Rappaport-Hovav, M., & Levin, B. (2010). Reflections on manner/result complementarity. In E. Doron & I. Sichel (Eds.), Syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure (pp. 21–38). Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• R Core Team. (2022). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/.
   Google Scholar
• Rissman, L., Horton, L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2023). Universal constraints on linguistic event categories: A cross-cultural study of child homesign. Psychological Science, 34(3), 09567976221140328. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221140328
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Rissman, L., Liu, Q., & Lupyan, G. (2023). Gaps in the lexicon restrict communication. Open Mind, 1–23.
   Google Scholar
• Rissman, L., van Putten, S., & Majid, A. (2022). Evidence for a shared instrument prototype from English, Dutch and German. Cognitive Science, 46(5), e13140. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13140
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Rogers, T. T., & McClelland, J. L. (2004). Semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach. MIT Press.
   Google Scholar
• Rosch, E., Mervis, C. B., Gray, W. D., Johnson, D. M., & Boyes-Braem, P. (1976). Basic objects in natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 8(3), 382–439. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(76)90013-X
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ross, B. H., & Murphy, G. L. (1999). Food for thought: Cross-classification and category organization in a complex real-world domain. Cognitive Psychology, 38(4), 495–553. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1998.0712
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sloutsky, V. M., & Fisher, A. V. (2012). Linguistic labels: Conceptual markers or object features? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111(1), 65–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.07.007
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sloutsky, V. M., Lo, Y.-F., & Fisher, A. V. (2001). How much does a shared name make things similar? Linguistic labels, similarity, and the development of inductive inference. Child Development, 72(6), 1695–1709. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00373
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Snodgrass, J. (1984). Concepts and their surface representations. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(84)90479-1
   Google Scholar
• Suffill, E., van Paridon, J., & Lupyan, G. (2022). Verbal labels increase conceptual alignment. Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Language Evolution, 691–698.
   Google Scholar
• Suffill, E., van Paridon, J., & Lupyan, G. (under review). Mind melds: Verbal labels induce greater representational alignment.
   Google Scholar
• Talmy, L. (1985). Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. Language Typology and Syntactic Description, 3, 57–149.
   Google Scholar
• Thompson, B., Roberts, S. G., & Lupyan, G. (2020). Cultural influences on word meanings revealed through large-scale semantic alignment. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(10), 1029–1038. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0924-8
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Tong, J., Binder, J. R., Humphries, C. J., Mazurchuk, S., Conant, L. L., & Fernandino, L. (2022). A distributed network for multimodal experiential representation of concepts. The Journal of Neuroscience, 42(37), 7121. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1243-21.2022
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• van Paridon, J., & Thompson, B. (2020). Subs2vec: Word embeddings from subtitles in 55 languages. Behavior Research Methods, 53(2), 629–655. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01406-3
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Waxman, S. R., & Gelman, R. (1986). Preschoolers’ use of superordinate relations in classification and language. Cognitive Development, 1(2), 139–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(86)80016-8
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Westermann, G., & Mareschal, D. (2014). From perceptual to language-mediated categorization. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1634), 20120391. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0391
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wisniewski, E. J., Imai, M., & Casey, L. (1996). On the equivalence of superordinate concepts. Cognition, 60(3), 269–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(96)00707-X
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wolff, P., & Holmes, K. J. (2011). Linguistic relativity. WIRES Cognitive Science, 2(3), 253–265. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.104
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Xu, Y., Duong, K., Malt, B. C., Jiang, S., & Srinivasan, M. (2020). Conceptual relations predict colexification across languages. Cognition, 201, 104280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104280
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Youn, H., Sutton, L., Smith, E., Moore, C., Wilkins, J. F., Maddieson, I., Croft, W., & Bhattacharya, T. (2016). On the universal structure of human lexical semantics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(7), 1766–1771. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1520752113
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Zettersten, M., & Lupyan, G. (2020). Finding categories through words: More nameable features improve category learning. Cognition, 196, 104135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104135
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar