Do You Name a Tiger Faster Than a Turtle?

What is it about?

we test the hypothesis that naming an object depicted in a picture, and reading aloud an object’s name, are affected by the object’s speed. We contend that the mental representations of everyday objects and situations include their speed, and that the latter influences behavior in instantaneous and systematic ways. An important corollary is that high-speed objects are named faster than low-speed objects despite the fact that object speed is irrelevant to the naming task at hand. The results of a series of 7 studies with pictures and words support these predictions.

Featured Image

Photo by toine G on Unsplash

Photo by toine G on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work highlights instantaneous non-conscious effects on performance, and highlights object speed as a significant and automatically evaluated factor of our cognitive system.