The differential dependence of abstract and concrete words upon associative and similarity-based information: Complementary semantic interference and facilitation effects

We report mirror-image effects of interference and facilitation in the semantic processing of identical sets of abstract and concrete words in a patient F.B.I. with global aphasia following a large left middle cerebral artery stroke. Interference was elicited when the tasks involved comprehending the spoken form of each word, but facilitation was found when the patient read aloud the written forms of the same words. More importantly, irrespective of whether the dynamic effect was one of facilitation or interference, effects of semantic association were observed for abstract words, whilst effects primarily of semantic similarity were observed for concrete words. These results offer further neuropsychological evidence that the more abstract a word, the greater its dependence upon associative information and the smaller its dependence upon similarity-based information. The investigations also contribute to a converging body of evidence that suggests that this theory generalizes across different experimental paradigms, stimuli, and participants and also across different cognitive processes within individual patients. The data support a graded rather than binary or ungraded model of the relationships between concreteness, association, and similarity, and the basis for concrete words’ greater dependence upon similarity-based information is discussed in terms of the development of taxonomic structures and categorical thought in young children.