Abstract
When a representation of an adjective-noun phrase is formed, the schema associated with the adjective is combined with the schema for the noun. For example, in forming a representation for a typical noun phrase like “red apple”, the schema for “red” only needs to overwrite the default value of red in the color slot of the “apple” schema. In contrast, when forming a representation for an atypical noun phrase like “brown apple”, the schema for “brown” has to replace the default value of red. If these hypotheses are correct, comprehension times for atypical noun phrases should be longer compared to times for typical noun phrases, assuming that the value-replacement process requires more time. Moreover, because the representation of a typical noun phrase can be assumed to be closer to that of the noun alone (“apple”), we may predict that, in a noun-phrase memorization task, more nouns would be recalled without the modifying adjective in the case of typical noun phrases compared to atypical noun phrases. The results from two experiments are consistent with these predictions, and thus support our hypotheses.
