Semantic Priming Study Suggests Concrete and Abstract Words have Qualitatively Similar Representational Systems

Despite the important role abstract concepts play in human life, the representational framework of abstract concepts has remained largely unexplored. The present study examined and compared abstract and concrete concept representation by way of a priming study. Specifically, this study tested the claim by Crutch and Warrington (2005) that concrete concepts are organized by a principle of similarity whereas abstract concepts are organized by a principle of association. A semantic priming task using semantically-similar but unassociated primes and associated but semantically-dissimilar primes for each target (e.g. mallet -> hammer; nail -> hammer) was used to test this claim. Analysis of variance and pairwise comparisons reveal no interaction between the main effect of priming and the concreteness of the target, suggesting that there is no qualitative difference in the representational systems of abstract and concrete words.M.A