Abstract:

The present study aimed to probe into the effect of individual’s knowledge base on detecting associations. Participants were 40 rich-knowledgeable and 46 less-knowledgeable people in biology domain. Experimental materials were 120 paired words, which were grouped into four based on two dimensions, biologic domain/general domain, and remote/close. There were 30 paired words in each group respectively. All words were nouns composed of two Chinese characters. Participants were asked to decide whether a paired words presented to them were associated in any ways. Repeated-Measures MANOVA revealed there was significant interaction between knowledge base and domain of paired words in percentage of acceptation. People with rich knowledge in biology domain had stronger inclinations to accept the associations of biologic paired words, and exhibited no difference in judging general paired words compared with less knowledgeable people. Analysis for RT testified that rich-knowledgeable people spent more time in judging the association of biologic remote paired words than less-knowledgeable people. Yet no differences were disclosed in processing the general domain samples. The explanation for such findings could be sought in the specificity of domain knowledge and in the spreading activation theory of semantic memory. The findings implied that knowledge base affected people’s abilities to detect remote associations in certain categories or domains, and such ability could be domain specific instead of being regarded as creator’s rigid traits. （注：这里是短摘要，长摘要见论文）

Key words: Semantic associations, Knowledge base, Expertise, Creative thought

摘要：

研究探讨了生物领域知识丰富者和贫乏者判断来自生物领域或一般领域亲疏度不同的配对词间联系的差异。采用2（生物领域丰富者和贫乏者）×2（生物领域配对词和一般领域配对词）×2（语义关系疏远配对词和语义关系密切配对词）混合实验设计，要求被试尽快判断4种类型共120组配对词的两个词间是否存在语义上的联系。结果发现：生物领域知识丰富者比贫乏者更倾向于接受生物领域配对词间的联系，且在判断生物领域关系疏远配对词时花费更长时间；而两者在判断一般领域配对词间的联系时，无论在接受性或反应时上均不存在差异。这一结果说明，知识背景影响个体觉察特定范畴或特定领域中观念间联系的敏感性，觉察观念间联系的能力表现出领域特殊的特征。

关键词: 语义联系, 领域知识, 专长, 创造性思维