What is some experimental evidence to support the semantic network view of mental representation? Is there counterevidence?

What is some experimental evidence to support the semantic network view of mental representation? Is there counterevidence?

Experimental evidence that supports the theory was provided by Collins and Quillian. They predicted that it would take participants longer to verify the sentence, "A canary is a animal.", than it would take to verify, "A canary is a bird." The reason for this is that they would have to travel along two nods for the first example (canary -> bird -> animal), whereas for the second only one nod (canary -> bird). The results were as predicted, it took participants longer, the further from canary they had to travel.
Counterevidence was provided by Rips et al. They showed that the statement "A ostrich is a bird" takes longer to verify than "A canary is a bird". This is problematic because both are one nod's distance from bird, and therefore should have the same reaction times. This is known as the typicality effect.
The same research group also showed that the sentence "A pig is an animal." is verified quicker than "A pig is a mammal". The first is seperated by 2 nods, the latter by 1.