AN EXAMINATION OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN NOUNS AND VERBS - ASSOCIATIONS WITH 2 DIFFERENT KINDS OF MOTION

Four experiments provide evidence that people are biased to associate particular types of motion with nouns and different types of motion wi th verbs. Novel nouns and verbs were related to two types of motion: ( 1) path, or the direction of motion of one character with respect to t he other character, and (2) movement orientation, or the direction a c haracter was facing as it moved. Subjects associated verbs more strong ly with path than with movement orientation. In contrast, they associa ted nouns more strongly with movement orientation than with path. Move ment orientation was associated with both object categories and verbs, inconsistent with a complete division of labor between these two type s of categories. These results are consistent, however, with the notio n that people are biased to associate verbs with relations between obj ects, whereas they are biased to associate object categories with moti ons defined with respect to the object carrying out those motions.