Proper-name processing: Are proper names pure referencing expressions?

Theoretical models of proper-name processing have been primarily derived fr om studies of people's names; however, they are thought to generalize to al l classes of proper name. Five experiments are reported that use repetition priming to compare different classes of proper names. It was found that fo r people's names and landmark names, (a) production of a name in response t o seeing a picture primed a subsequent familiarity decision to the same ite m's written name and (b) similarly, making a familiarity decision to an aud itory presentation of a name primed a familiarity decision to the same item 's written name. No comparable facilitation was found for the country-name stimuli. The presence of this specific facilitation was attributed to the n ature of connectivity between conceptual and lexical representations. Theor etical views that proper names are unique, meaningless labels and that they are pure referencing expressions are evaluated.