Knowledge Bank

There are at least two types of semantic relations important for understanding cognitive development: taxonomic and thematic relations. Until recently, the literature focused primarily on the importance of taxonomic relations, or relations based on shared features (DOG – CAT), as it was believed that thematic relations (DOG – LEASH) only play a dominant role early in childhood (e.g. Inhelder & Piaget, 1964; Smiley and Brown, 1979). The lack of investigation has led to inconsistencies in defining thematic relations among researchers. The goal of the present study was to compare the effects of different types of thematic relations within the same experimental paradigm. We employed a lexical decision task in adults to compare priming effects of four types of thematic relations: attributive (FLY - WINGS), argument (BEAR - FISH), coordinate (CHAIR – TABLE), and locative (BEAR – FOREST) (Jouravlev, & McRae). We found significant priming effects for coordinate and locative relations. However, there were no priming effects for attributive and argument relations. Our results call for the further investigation of thematic relations and have the potential to further our understanding of the nature of thematic relatedness.