Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Conceptual combination is the act of building complex concepts from simpler ones. Although previous research has ex-amined how inferences about compound objects (e.g., fuzzy chair) are produced from their constituent concepts, littleis known about the combinatorial processes that produce inferences about compound social categories (e.g., Irish Musi-cian). Using a computational approach, we investigated the relationship between trait ratings of 25 nationality-occupationcombinations and ratings of their constituent concepts. 25 non-human animal combinations (e.g., circus snake) serve as acomparison. We find that constituent concepts are weighted unequally when combined: head concepts (Musician/Snake)are prioritized over modifier concepts (Irish/Circus) for both combination types. Additionally, ratings of more familiar so-cial combinations diverge increasingly from ratings of their constituent concepts, whereas ratings of more familiar animalcombinations instead converge with ratings of their constituents. This raises the possibility that existing knowledge playsdifferent roles in peoples inferences about human versus animal categories.