STANDARDIZED STIMULI AND PROCEDURES FOR INVESTIGATING THE RETRIEVAL OF LEXICAL AND CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE FOR ACTIONS

We have developed a set of naming and recognition tests for evaluating the retrieval of lexical and conceptual knowledge for actions. As a f irst step, normative information about 280 items was collected for the following variables: (1) the naming responses elicited by each item, (2) the degree to which the image of each item agreed with a target na me, (3) the familiarity of each depicted action, and (4) the visual co mplexity of each item. This information was used to develop administra tion and scoring procedures for a standardized test of action naming. The effectiveness and reliability of these procedures were evaluated i n a second experiment. In a third experiment, five tests were develope d to probe the retrieval of conceptual knowledge: (1) independently of the production of a naming response, (2) in response to pictorial and nonpictorial stimuli, (3) in terms of the attributes associated with specific actions, and (4) in terms of similarities and differences bet ween various actions.