DOMINANCE AND NONCOMMUTATIVITY EFFECTS IN CONCEPT CONJUNCTIONS - EXTENSIONAL OR INTENSIONAL BASIS

Dominance and noncommutativity effects are investigated in relative cl ause descriptions of five conjunctive concepts (birds and pets, sports and games, vehicles and machines, office equipment and writing implem ents, and shoes and sports equipment). Both asymmetry phenomena are st udied at the extensional level (using membership ratings) and at the i ntensional level (using feature-importance ratings). A clear dominance effect was found for both the membership ratings and the feature-impo rtance ratings, whereas the noncommutativity effect emerged only occas ionally in the membership ratings and almost never in the feature-impo rtance ratings. The data suggested that the dominance effect and the m uch weaker noncommutativity effect have an extensional basis