Lexical co-occurrence and association strength

Spence, Donald P.; Owens, Kimberly C.

doi:10.1007/bf01074363

Cited by 139 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This assumption is supported by findings of correlations between associative strength and cooccurrence of words in large language corpora (Rapp & Wettler, 1991;Spence & Owens, 1990). However, it should be noted that there may also be some degree of cooccurrence for words that are not highly associated according to association norms.…”

Section: Associative and Semantic Primingsupporting

confidence: 66%

Accessing different types of lexical semantic information: Evidence from priming.

Moss,

Ostrin,

Tyler

et al. 1995

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

237

286

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The types of semantic information that are automatically retrieved from the mental lexicon on hearing a word were investigated in 3 semantic priming experiments. The authors probed for activation of information about a word's category membership by using prime-target pairs that were members of a common semantic category (e.g., pig-horse) and 2 types of functional semantic properties: instrument relations (e.g., broom-floor) and script relations (e.g., restaurant-wine). The authors crossed type of semantic relation between prime and target with degree of normative association strength. In a paired and a single-word presentation version of an auditory lexicaldecision priming task, the authors found significant priming for category and functionally related targets, both with and without an additional associative relation. In all cases there was a significant associative boost. However, in a visual version of the single-word lexical-decision paradigm, a different pattern of results was found for each type of semantic relation. Category coordinates primed only when they were normatively associated, instrument relations primed both with and without association, and script relations primed in neither condition.The semantic priming paradigm introduced by Meyer and Schvaneveldt (1971) is one of the most widely used in psychological studies of memory and language. Many studies have demonstrated that participants' recognition of a target word, such as nurse, is facilitated when it is preceded by a related word like doctor, compared with a neutral or unrelated word (e.g., Antos, 1979;Becker, 1980;de Groot, 1984;McNamara, 1992aMcNamara, , 1992bNeely, 1991;Seidenberg, Waters, Sanders, & Langer, 1984). The main concern of these studies has been to characterize the mechanisms by which the context provided by the prime influences processing of the target word. However, priming tasks can also be used to investigate a different kind of question: What types of semantic information are automatically accessed when a word is heard or read? For a prime word to facilitate recognition of a particular target, it is necessary that the semantic information underpinning that prime-target relationship be accessed when the prime is processed. For example, if canary primes bird, this suggests that when canary is heard, information about its superordinate category is accessed. If we find that canary also primes small and yellow, it suggests that certain perceptual properties are also made available; if canary primes cage, it suggests that the information accessed includes the situation in which canaries are typically encountered. the semantic information accessed when a word is recognized by charting the range of prime-target relationships that support f acilitatory priming of a reaction time response such as lexical decision.The advantage of the priming task is that it can give a relatively transparent measure of the information that is normally made available to the comprehension system as a result of lexical access. This contrasts with off-li...

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Section: Associative and Semantic Primingsupporting

confidence: 66%

Accessing different types of lexical semantic information: Evidence from priming.

Moss,

Ostrin,

Tyler

et al. 1995

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

237

286

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are a few exceptions to this in the priming literature, however. For instance, using different kinds of related words, such as synonyms and various types of categorymembership relations, Spence and Owens (1990) demonstrate that co-occurrence frequency in text is significantly correlated with strength of association in priming experiments. In contrast to these findings, Estes and Jones (2009) show that co-occurrence frequency does not play a role in the explanation of integrative priming in expressions such as lemon cake, horse doctor and plastic toy.…”

Section: Antonyms and Frequencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The other reason is to select test items for the experiments in a principled way using natural language since previous corpus studies have shown that textual evidence supports degrees of lexical canonicity. Charles and Miller (1989), Spence and Owens (1990), Katz (1991, 1992), Fellbaum (1995) and Willners (2001) have established that members of pairs perceived to be canonical tend to co-occur at higher than chance rates and that such pairings co-occur significantly more often than other semantically possible pairings (Willners 2001).…”

Section: Antonyms and Frequencymentioning

confidence: 99%

As lexical as it gets: The role of co-occurrence of antonyms in a visual lexical decision experiment

Weijer¹,

Paradis²,

Willners

et al. 2012

Frequency Effects in Language Representation

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“…For example, over 50% of subjects give dog as the first word they think of in response to cat. Several researchers have argued that association strength reflects the frequent cooccurrence of words in the language, over and above any semantic relation between them (Glosser & Friedman, 1991;Moss, Ostrin, Tyler, & MarslenWilson, in press;Shelton & Martin, 1992) and this is supported by findings of correlations between associative strength and co-occurrence of words in large language corpora (Rapp & Wettler, 1991;Spence & Owens, 1990). Thus, it is plausible that priming between strongly associated word stems from spreading activation between lexical representations, with the activation links built up by frequency of co-occurrence.…”

Section: Theoretical Issues In the Use Of Priming To Probe Semantic Mmentioning

confidence: 54%

Investigating semantic memory impairments: The contribution of semantic priming

Moss

Tyler

1995

Memory

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The semantic priming task is a valuable tool in the investigation of semantic memory impairments in patients with acquired disorders of language. This is because priming performance reflects automatic or implicit access to semantic information, unlike most other tests of semantic knowledge, which rely on explicit, voluntary access. Priming results are important for two main reasons: First, normal priming results may be observed in patients who perform poorly on other semantic memory tests, enabling us to distinguish between loss of, or damage to, information in semantic memory, and voluntary access to that information. Second, we can investigate the detailed pattern of loss and preservation of different types of semantic infomation, by charting the priming effects for different kinds of words, and different kinds of semantic relations between primes and targets.We discuss the use of the priming task in this context, and address some of the theoretical and me:hodological criticisms that have been raised in connection with use of the priming task to address these issues. We then describe two recent studies in which we have employed semantic priming tasks, along with other more traditional methods, to investigate specific questions about the semantic memory deficits of three patients.

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Lexical co-occurrence and association strength

Cited by 139 publications

References 8 publications

Accessing different types of lexical semantic information: Evidence from priming.

Accessing different types of lexical semantic information: Evidence from priming.

As lexical as it gets: The role of co-occurrence of antonyms in a visual lexical decision experiment

Investigating semantic memory impairments: The contribution of semantic priming

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