The Semantic Representation of Actresses and Actors

The present study explores the structure of moviegoers knowledge about actors and actresses considered as categories of semantic knowledge. For this purpose, participants generated either names of actors or names of actresses and, in a second phase of the experiment, judged their responses in terms of aesthetic preference and frequency of instantiation. Both categories exhibited a graded structure in terms of typicality but while frequency of instantiation was the strongest response determinant for actresses, aesthetic preference was the strongest response determinant for actors. Moviegoing frequency was positively related to the number of names produced for actors but not for actresses. Main conclusions suggest that actresses and actors are relevant semantic categories for moviegoers. Possible factors for differences between the two categories are also discussed.