Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

It is found that when we name an object or a face, we often use basic level name (e.g., dog) rather than a nameat superordinate level (e.g., animal) or subordinate level (e.g., Labrador). In addition, although abundant evidence generallysuggested that both familiarity and typicality influence object recognition, how each of the two factors involves categorizationin terms of naming is not fully investigated yet. The present studies were performed to examine the familiarity and typicalityeffects on naming either an object or a face. Names for basic, superordinate, and subordinate levels were prepared for testingthe speed and correctness of object/face identification. As a result, familiarity, not typicality, induced a down-shift pattern fornaming. In contrast, typicality led to overall faster responses. The findings of the study indicated that familiarity and typicalityhave dissimilar effects on categorization by naming.