Meaning dominance and semantic context in the processing of lexical ambiguity

Simpson, Greg B.

doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(81)90356-x

Cited by 261 publications

(250 citation statements)

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“…Behavioral data lent support to both perspectives. Some findings suggested context effects on a purely postlexical level (e.g., Burgess, Tanenhaus, & Seidenberg, 1989;Lucas, 1987;Onifer & Swinney, 1981;Swinney, 1979) whereas others pointed to rapid contextual effects on lexical access (Duffy, Henderson & Morris, 1989;Glucksberg, Kreuz, & Rho, 1986;Schvaneveldt, Meyer, & Becker, 1976;Simpson, 1981;Tabossi, 1988;see Simpson, 1994, for a review).…”

Section: Predictability: Top-down Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stimulus onset asynchrony and the timeline of word recognition: Event-related potentials during sentence reading

et al. 2012

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Article in press in Neuropsychologia [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.04.011] Please note that this unproofed preprint may be subject to minor changes. [May 5, 2012] SOA and the Timeline of Word Recognition 2 AbstractThree ERP experiments examined the effect of word presentation rate (i.e., stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA) on the time course of word frequency and predictability effects in sentence reading. In Experiments 1 and 2, sentences were presented word-by-word in the screen center at an SOA of 700 and 490 ms, respectively. While these rates are typical for psycholinguistic ERP research, natural reading happens at a considerably faster pace. Accordingly, Experiment 3 employed a near-normal SOA of 280 ms, which approximated the rate of normal reading. Main results can be summarized as follows: (1) The onset latency of early frequency effects decreases gradually with increasing presentation rates. (2) An early interaction between top-down and bottom-up processing is observed only under a nearnormal SOA. (3) N400 predictability effects occur later and are smaller at a near-normal (i.e., high) presentation rate than at the lower rates commonly used in ERP experiments. (4) ERP morphology is different at the shortest compared to longer SOAs. Together, the results point to a special role of a near-normal presentation rate for visual word recognition and therefore suggest that SOA should be taken into account in research of natural reading.

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Section: Predictability: Top-down Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stimulus onset asynchrony and the timeline of word recognition: Event-related potentials during sentence reading

et al. 2012

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“…Empirical evidence from studies in which subjects rated the strength of context has confirmed the above arguments. Simpson (1981) and Simpson and Krueger (1991) showed that, when contexts were rated as ambiguous, facilitation was demonstrated for both meanings of a homonym, but, under strong contexts, only the contextually appropriate meaning was facilitated. Apparently, ambiguous contexts are general enough to support both senses of a homonym, but the constraints imposed by strong contexts will only allow one sense.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The degree to which the alternative meanings of a homonym are activated is sensitive to the constraints imposed by the biasing context. According to this contextsensitive model of lexical ambiguity resolution, the process of meaning activation is continuous, whereby the activation levels of alternative meanings of a homonym are computed and a continuum of graded activation is produced, depending on the overall strength of context (see, e.g., Paul et aI., 1992;Simpson, 1981;Simpson & Krueger, 1991). Theoretically, it has been proposed that a priming context activates a constellation of semantic features representing what the sentence is about (cf.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The present research was conducted to address this issue. Simpson's (1981) and Simpson and Krueger's (1991) examination of strength of context effects on lexical ambiguity resolution have been criticized for not testing for immediate activation ofa homonym's meanings (see, e.g., Rayner et aI., 1994;Tabossi et aI., 1987). Consequently, the pattern of results reported by Simpson may have been contaminated by integration processes following word meaning activation.…”

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Sources of sentence constraint on lexical ambiguity resolution

Kellas

Paul

1998

Mem Cogn

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Results from a series of naming experiments demonstrated that major lexical categories of simple sentences can provide sources of constraint on the interpretation of ambiguous words (homonyms). Manipulation of verb (Experiment 1) or subject noun (Experiment 2) specificity produced contexts that were empirically rated as being strongly biased or ambiguous. Priming was demonstrated for target words related to both senses of a homonym following ambiguous sentences, but only contextually appropriate target words were primed following strongly biased dominant or subordinate sentences. Experiment 3 showed an increase in the magnitude of priming when multiple constraints on activation converged. Experiments 4 and 5 eliminated combinatorial intralexical priming as an alternative explanation. Instead, it was demonstrated that each constraint was influential only insofar as it contributed to the overall semantic representation of the sentence. When the multiple sources of constraint were retained but the sentence-level representation was changed (Experiment 4) or eliminated (Experiment 5), the results of Experiments 1, 2, and 3 and were not replicated. Experiment 6 examined the issue of homonym exposure duration by using an 80-msec stimulus onset asynchrony. The results replicated the previous experiments. The overall evidence indicates that a sentence context can be made strongly and immediately constraining by the inclusion of specific fillers for salient lexical categories. The results are discussed within a constraint-based, context-sensitive model of lexical ambiguity resolution.

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“…These studies show that the use of phrasal context for understanding the meaning of unknown words is also achieved at the level of childhood, but suggestions that the phrasal context to stimulate the development of lexicon are especially active at the age of middle school. As for the other line of research that focuses on the importance of the phrasal context to identify alternative meanings of known words, it used adult participants and modern "on line" procedures (the mental activity and behaviour of the subject are recorded through various pieces of equipment while he/she is performing a given task) which allowed the researchers to follow the unfolding of the processes at the real time of their occurrence (Swinney, 1979;Simpson, 1981;Tabossi & Johnson-Laird, 1980;Tabossi, Colombo, & Job, 1987). The results of these studies are consistent with the results of trials by Werner andKaplan (1950, 1952) and Petter (1955) to the effect that children are active in the use of phrasal context, but they often do so inappropriately and in any case not before the developmental period corresponding to middle school, thus over 12-13 years of age, contrary to what was empirically found in this study between the third and fifth class of primary school.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnosis and Prevention With or Without Sentence Context Lexical Definitions in Young People Aged Between 8 and 12

Aprile¹

2016

Revista INFAD de Psicología

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Our hypothesis foresees the presence of the following lexical abilities: synonyms, antonyms, categories, word function with or without sentence context. 215 girls and 257 boys in third grade, 240 girls and 255 boys in fourth grade, 245 girls and 276 boys in fifth grade (for a total of 1488) participated in this research project. The experiment was divided into 2 phases. In the first phase, 100 boys and girls, divided by age were asked to define words with high image value and dominant meaning and frequency of use in a list. The words were taken from short readings of elementary school literature. The passages used were those reflecting a popularity rating above 80%. The Flesch index of readability (with a value between 64 and 73, higher than mean value of 50) was applied to the readings. In the first phase we recorded the answers the children gave to questions such as "What does word X mean?" or "How would you define word X?". The children were asked to provide the best written definition according to them. They were with no problems in reading and writing processes. We then proceeded to elaborate the test with four multiple choice questions. In the second phase, using the definitions provided by the children, we used trials subject to item analysis using calculations based on: index of difficulty, ability to distinguish, reliability factor (using the Kuder-Richardson formula). The definitive test was divided into eight parts including: synonyms, antonyms, categories, contextual and non contextual functions (PAV or Analytical Vocabulary Test, Florence, O.S., 1991).The results showed by means of factorial analysis times principle components (varimax method, N = 1488) the presence of two principal factors: Factor 1, contextual and Factor 2, non contextual. This data would seem to confirm that subjects when working out the definition of words, need two types of information: the context of the sentence in which the word is used (Factor 1, contextual) and the definition of the word without referring to the sentence (Factor 2, non contextual). INTRODUCTIONRelatively recently, especially from the 1970s onwards, scholars have focused specifically on lexical development and its evolutionary characteristics, providing contributions of empirical research.Lexical skills, it has been observed, develop according to multi-dimensional processes including synonyms, antonyms, categories and functions. While the issue of how these lexical processes are influenced by the phrasal context in which they are to be processed compared to the non-contextual condition has been relatively neglected, that is little attention has been paid especially from an evolutionary point of view; on the contrary it is a topic that is central to this research (Al-Issa, 1969;Anglin, 1970Anglin, , 1977Anglin, , 1985McNeill, 1970;Ehri & Richardson, 1972;Litowitz, 1977;Bartlett, 1978;Hermann, 1978;Nelson, 1978;Clark, 1979;Arcaini, 1982;Arcuri & Girotto, 1986;Kuczaj & Barrett, 1986;Powell, 1986;Miller & Gildea, 1987;Girotti, Antonietti & Marchetti, ...

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Meaning dominance and semantic context in the processing of lexical ambiguity

Cited by 261 publications

References 25 publications

Stimulus onset asynchrony and the timeline of word recognition: Event-related potentials during sentence reading

Stimulus onset asynchrony and the timeline of word recognition: Event-related potentials during sentence reading

Sources of sentence constraint on lexical ambiguity resolution

Diagnosis and Prevention With or Without Sentence Context Lexical Definitions in Young People Aged Between 8 and 12

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