FREQUENCY, IMAGERY VALUE, AND TYPES OF FEATURES IN NATURAL CATEGORIES

The data presented here are part of a wider research program which focused on the general model of features (Medin and Smith, 1981, 1984). In this study the objective was to try to relate the theoretical field of image formation with that of conceptual representations (Denis, 1982). Several semantic categories were analyzed to obtain lists of the cognitive units or features from different samples of subjects. An analysis was conducted on the nature of these features, and we thus attempted to verify whether the attributes that represented a concept with the greatest strength are identical to those that have the greatest image value, as measured on a five-point scale. No systematic correlations between the image value of the features and frequency were found. Nonetheless certain trends should be pointed out. The taxonomical features in the superordinate categories have a low image value, whereas in the basic level features the value is higher.