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The sensory/functional assumption or the data: Which do we keep?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2001

Bradford Mahon
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 caram@wjh.harvard.edumahon@fas.harvard.edu
Alfonso Caramazza
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 caram@wjh.harvard.edumahon@fas.harvard.edu

Abstract

The HIT model explains the existence of semantic category-specific deficits by assuming that sensory knowledge is crucially important in processing living things, while functional knowledge is crucially important in processing nonliving things – the sensory/functional assumption. Here we argue that the sensory/functional assumption as implemented in HIT is neither theoretically nor empirically grounded and that, in any case, there is neuropsychological evidence which invalidates this assumption, thereby undermining the HIT model as a whole.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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