The role of feature sharedness in the organization of semantic knowledge: Insights from semantic dementia.

摘要

Objective: The present study directly evaluated the impact of feature sharedness on the differences between superordinate and basic-level concepts observed in semantic dementia (SD) patients. Method: For this purpose, we studied a group of 6 SD patients and a group of 12 matched controls using a sentence verification task in which we orthogonally manipulated feature sharedness (more vs. less shared) and concept level (basic level vs. superordinate). Results: Main results showed that the superordinate advantage in SD patients was observed for more shared features but not for less shared features (p < .05, ηp2 = .36). Conclusion: These results directly support the role of feature sharedness in explaining the hierarchical organization of semantic knowledge and the specific to general pattern of knowledge deterioration in SD in particular. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).