A study is reported in which generic assertions, based on inductive and deductive evidence providing varying degrees of support, were presented to subjects for acceptance or rejection. The results show that generalization power (probability of generic agreement) is influenced primarily by inherent verb characteristics. (Author/RM)

Three experiments were performed, based on the two hypotheses about the rejection of false statements. False statements are rejected because they are "contradictory sentences," i.e., there is a subject/predicate contradiction, and "counterexample sentences," which are rejected when a person thinks of a counterexample to the assertion. (SC)

Decisions about whether pairs of letter strings are both words or not are faster for semantically related words than unrelated words. Two experiments showed the semantic relatedness effect is greatly reduced when orthographically illegal, unpronounceable strings were used as negative items. Lexical decisions involve options on codes representing…

Reports an experiment with tasks involving memory search for a given probe word with respect to a set of semantic category labels for subjects in a word comparison task and a set of semantic category labels for subjects in the categorization task. The memory search process is fundamentally different in categorization and comparison tasks. (CLK)

Subjects compared the magnitudes of pairs of concepts from the semantic orderings of time, quality and temperature. Results showed that the semantic representations of ordered terms contain subjective magnitude information. (Author/RM)

The effect of presupposition on memory depends upon a restricted class of pragmatic conditions. If certain intended misleaders are introduced, presupposition does not enter into memory. This was shown with two experiments in which subjects "remembered" an accident differently, depending upon whether misleading facts were introduced.…

Two experiments tested a set of predictions regarding category definitions and categorization latencies. Neither prediction was supported by the experiment results, leading to the formulation of an alternative feature-based model of category definitions using the notion of a polymorphous concept. (Author/AM)

Two experiments are reported in which subjects viewed films of automobile accidents and then answered questions about events occurring in the films. Wording of questions regarding speed influenced subjects' estimates of speed. (Author/RM)

A study is reported investigating the question whether inferences made from sentences occur immediately in comprehension or are in part a function of the way material from sentences is stored in memory. (Author/RM)

A study of conceptual and relational responses of subjects when recalling the semantic content of a text they have just heard. Responses can be overgeneralized and inferred. Responses studied reflect processes of adjustment during acquisition of information and the processes occurring during recall. (SC)

This study investigated the role of semantic variables, derivable from multidimensional scaling, in search and decision processes. (Author/RM)

Research supported by research grants from the Canadian Defense Research Board and the Canada Council. (VM)

Two experiments studied how people determine relationships among family members. In one experiment, subjects were to determine relationships in hypothetical families. In the second, the families were in the subjects' experience. It was determined that memory was organized in terms of parent-child relations together with knowledge of which members…

Reports on two experiments conducted to test the hypothesis that the spacing effect in free recall results from greater semantic-feature variability across distributed repetitions than massed repetition. (AM)

An adaptive network model is proposed to represent the structure and processing of knowledge. Accessibility of subjects' stored information was measured. Relationships exist among (a) frequency of verifying a test relation, (b) other relations involving concepts used to evaluate test relation, (c) frequency of verifying those relations. (CHK)