ABSTRACT
Introduction Access to a semantic system is necessary for comprehension to occur. Comprehension is more than mere recognition: it is possible to recognise that something has been encountered previously, without necessarily knowing how that item differs functionally from other similar items, how it is related to other items, or how it might be used. We take it that a semantic system specifi es the kind of knowledge that allows decisions to be made concerning the functional and associative characteristics of things.
