Semantic feature-comparison model: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:59, 9 November 2012

Revision as of 16:00, 9 November 2012

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'''History:'''

This model was conceptualized by Edward Smith, Edward Shoben and Lance Rips in 1974 after they derived various observations from semantic verification experiments conducted at the time. The task is simple: respondents merely have to answer ‘true’ or ‘false’ to given sentences. Out of these experiments, they observed that people respond faster when

# (1) statements are true

# (2) nouns are members of smaller categories

# (3) items are ‘typical’ or commonly associated with the category (also called prototypes)

# (4) items are primed by a similar item previously given (University of Alaska Anchorage, n.d.)

Such as previous statement ‘eagle is a bird’ and next statement ‘robin is a bird’. In the latter item, respondents will respond faster to the latter statement since the category bird has been primed. So, based on the previous observations, the proponents were able to come up with the Semantic Feature Comparison Model.

The main features of the model, as discussed by Smith et al (1974), are the defining features and the characteristic features. Defining features refer to the characteristics that are essential elements of the category, the non-negotiables, so to speak. For example, the ‘bird’ category includes such defining features as ‘they have wings,’ ‘feathers,’ ‘they lay eggs,’ etc. Meantime, characteristic features refer to the elements usually found or inherent to category members but are not found in all, or non-essentials. For example, birds ‘fly,’ – that is characteristic because while most birds fly, there are some who cannot.