According to traditional views, basic and subordinate concepts elicit
perceptual information, superordinate concepts abstract information. Two
experiments showed that also superordinate concepts activate perceptual
and contextual information. In Experiment I participants evaluated the
adequacy of Scene- and Object-like locations ascribed to basic and
superordinate concepts. Super-ordinate concepts were judged faster when
paired with Scene-like locations, where many exemplars can coexist, than
with Object-like locations. The results were replicated and extended in
the second experiment with a location production task. Theoretical
accounts for the results are discussed. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.