What makes a man similar to a tie? Stimulus compatibility with comparison and integration

We argue and show that different properties of stimuli are compatible with different types of processing, Specifically, object pairs from the same tax onomic category (e.g., chair-bed) tend to be alignable and thus compatible with comparison, whereas object pairs that play different roles in thematic relations (e.g., chair-carpenter) tend to be nonalignable and compatible w ith integration. Using object pairs that varied orthogonally in alignabilit y and thematic relatedness, we demonstrated that stimulus compatibility mod ulates processing and affects the outcomes of tasks that are currently beli eved to involve only comparison (similarity ratings, Experiment I; listing commonalities and differences, Experiment 2) or only integration (thematic relatedness ratings, Experiment 3). Our findings and others that we have re viewed suggest that: (1) many cognitive tasks involve both comparison and i ntegration, and (2) the relative influence of each process is modulated by an interplay between the task-appropriate and the stimulus-compatible proce ss. We believe that single-process models should be extended to take this i nterplay into account. (C) 1999 Academic Press.