Ward T B, Dodds R A, Saunders K N, Sifonis C M
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2000 Dec;28(8):1387-97. doi: 10.3758/bf03211839.
Participants' representations of the concept human were examined to differentiate three types of associations between concepts and their component attributes: the capacity of concepts to cue attributes (attribute accessibility), the capacity of attributes to cue concepts (instance accessibility), and the extent to which attributes are thought of as central to concepts (attribute centrality). The findings provide information about the concept human itself and, more generally, about the functionally distinct roles those different attribute-concept associations play in guiding imaginative thought. College students listed attributes that differentiate humans from other animals, rated the centrality of those attributes, and listed animals that possess those attributes. Other students drew and described extraterrestrials that possessed some of the attributes that were found to vary across those listing and rating tasks. Rated centrality was the most important determinant of an attribute's impact on imaginative generation. When the imagined extraterrestrials were supposed to possess attributes that had been rated as central to humans (intelligence, emotional complexity, or opposable thumbs), participants projected more aspects of human form onto them than when the creatures were supposed to possess less central attributes or when attributes were unspecified.
研究了参与者对“人类”概念的表征，以区分概念与其组成属性之间的三种关联类型：概念提示属性的能力（属性可及性）、属性提示概念的能力（实例可及性），以及属性被认为对概念至关重要的程度（属性中心性）。这些发现提供了关于“人类”概念本身的信息，更广泛地说，提供了关于这些不同的属性 - 概念关联在引导想象思维中所起的功能不同作用的信息。大学生列出了区分人类与其他动物的属性，对这些属性的中心性进行了评分，并列出了具有这些属性的动物。其他学生绘制并描述了具有一些在上述列出和评分任务中发现有所不同的属性的外星人。评分中心性是属性对想象生成影响的最重要决定因素。当想象中的外星人被认为具有被评为对人类至关重要的属性（智力、情感复杂性或对生拇指）时，与当这些生物被认为具有不太核心的属性或属性未明确指定时相比，参与者会将更多人类形态的方面投射到它们身上。
