Disagreement exists regarding the functional locus of semantic interference of distractor words in picture naming. This effect is a cornerstone of modern psycholinguistic models of word production, which assume that it arises in lexical response-selection. However, recent evidence from studies of dual-task performance suggests a locus in…

In their lead articles, both Kowalski and Zimiles (2006) and O'Hanlon and Roberson (2006) declare a general relation between color term knowledge and the ability to conceptually represent color. Kowalski and Zimiles, in particular, argue for a priority for the conceptual representation in color term acquisition. The complexities of the interaction…

Introduces this special issue of the journal, which focuses on vantage theory. Articles in this issue demonstrate applications of vantage theory across diverse realms of cognition. (Author/VWL)

Young children experience considerable difficulty in learning their first few color terms. One explanation for this difficulty is that initially they lack a conceptual representation of color sufficiently abstract to support word meaning. This hypothesis, that prior to learning color terms children do not represent color as an abstraction, was…

Reviews vantage theory and makes a claim that it does not replace, but coexists with a semantics for color terms. Identifies basic facts about countability in English, and presents further evidence of the fact that the grammar of number and quantification in English is exploited to reveal different conceptualizations of what is spoken of. Claims…

This study investigates acquisition of two aspects of the meaning of color terms: semantic organization and reference. A longitudinal, repeated measure design was used, and data were collected from 33 subjects, 2 to 4 years old at first testing. Four tasks were used: one to assess semantic organization (the acquisition of the…

It has been understood for decades that language and thought are closely related. If one accepts that the thoughts that we construct are based upon the language that we speak and the words that we use, then it follows that the language that we speak influences the way that we think. It is necessary that we possess the words to describe objects,…