ArticleCognitive processing2026
Specificity effect in concrete/abstract semantic categorization task.
Article in Cognitive processing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Distinguishing abstraction from abstractness: Specificity norms for 8,500 English words.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Article
- Beyond concreteness: why word specificity is the missing piece in theories on embodied language comprehension.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Concrete concepts (banana) are processed faster and more accurately than abstract ones (belief). This phenomenon, supported by empirical studies, is known as the concreteness effect. However, recent research indicates that controlling certain psycholinguistic variables can mitigate or reverse this effect. We introduce a previously neglected variable, namely categorical specificity, and investigate its role in lexical and semantic access, through: ratings, a lexical decision task and a semantic decision task. Our findings confirm the processing advantage of concrete over abstract concepts (concreteness effect) and reveal a similar advantage for specific over general concepts (specificity effect). We also report a non-significant interaction between the two variables. We discuss the results within the general framework of conceptual abstraction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.