Differences in word associations to pictures and words

Normal subjects were asked to produce the “first word that comes to mind” in response to pictures or words that differed with respect to manipulability and animacy. In separate analyses across subjects and items, normal subjects produced a significantly higher proportion of action words (that is, verbs) to pictures as compared to words, to manipulable as compared to non-manipulable stimuli and to inanimate as compared to animate stimuli. The largest proportion of action words was elicited by pictures of non-living, manipulable objects. Furthermore, associates to words matched standard word associates significantly more often than those elicited by pictures. These data suggest that pictures and words initially contact different forms of conceptual information and are consistent with an account of semantic organization that assumes that information is distributed across different domains reflecting the mode of acquisition of that knowledge.