Gagné, C. L. (2002).
The competition-among-relations-in-nominals theory of conceptual combination.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
78, 551-565.
One way in which new concepts are added to the conceptual system
is through conceptual combination. The competition-among-
relations-in-nominals (CARIN) theory (Gagn;aae & Shoben,
1997) proposes that conceptual combination involves specifying a
thematic relation (e.g., noun MADE OF modifier) to link the
constituent concepts (e.g., chocolate and bee).
This theory claims that relations have different strengths for
various concepts that correspond to how often a modifier and
relation have been paired in previous encounters with combined
concepts and that this relational knowledge strongly affects the
ease with which combined concepts can be formed. A mathematical
model that incorporates key claims of the theory is presented,
and empirical findings that are relevant to evaluating the CARIN
theory are reviewed. The parallels between the CARIN theory and
approaches to stimulus class formation are also discussed.
Key words: conceptual combination, stimulus class formation,
class expansion, noun compounds, math modeling, Gagne