Semantic ambiguity effects in word identification
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this paper, the influence of semantic ambiguity on word identification processes was explored in a series of word naming and lexical-decision experiments and the results were simulated by using a distributed memory model that also produces the ambiguity disadvantage in gaze duration that has been obtained with a reading comprehension task.Abstract:
The influence of semantic ambiguity on word identification processes was explored in a series of word naming and lexical-decision experiments. There was no reliable ambiguity effect in 2 naming experiments, although an ambiguity advantage in lexical decision was obtained when orthographically legal nonwords were used. No ambiguity effect was found in iexical decision when orthographically illegal nonwords were used, implying a semantic locus for the ambiguity advantage. These results were simulated by using a distributed memory model that also produces the ambiguity disadvantage in gaze duration that has been obtained with a reading comprehension task. Ambiguity effects in the model arise from the model's attempt to activate multiple meanings of an ambiguous word in response to presentation of that word's orthographic pattern. Reasons for discrepancies in empirical results and implications for distributed memory models are considered. Any comprehensive theory of mental representation and process must accommodate the complex means by which concepts are communicated through language. Through the course of history, humans have developed tools of communication that facilitate the relaying of ideas and concepts, such as a writing system or orthography. This mapping of concepts to orthography is not entirely one to one, however, resulting in some words that correspond to multiple concepts, which are known as semantically ambiguous words. When reading text, the context provided by preceding words and sentences provides a means of disambiguating such words. As a result, we may not even notice the ambiguity in words that we are reading in context. If, on the other hand, semantically ambiguous words are presented in isolation, their alternative meanings are readily accessible, and thus their ambiguous nature is noticed. In the research reported in this article, we compare performance on semantically ambiguous words with that of semantically unambiguous words in isolated word identification tasks and describe simulations of the empirical effects within the framework of a distributed memory architecture (Masson, 1995). The effect of semantic ambiguity on isolated word identification has usually been determined by comparing performance on unambiguous words (which are associated with only oneread more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Conflict monitoring and cognitive control.
TL;DR: Two computational modeling studies are reported, serving to articulate the conflict monitoring hypothesis and examine its implications, including a feedback loop connecting conflict monitoring to cognitive control, and a number of important behavioral phenomena.
Journal ArticleDOI
Wuggy: a multilingual pseudoword generator.
Emmanuel Keuleers,Marc Brysbaert +1 more
TL;DR: This work presents a pseudoword generator that improves on current methods and allows for the generation of written polysyllabic pseudowords that obey a given language’s phonotactic constraints.
Journal ArticleDOI
Making Sense of Semantic Ambiguity: Semantic Competition in Lexical Access
TL;DR: The authors compare the ambiguity seen in words like bark, which have multiple unrelated meanings, with words that have multiple related word senses (e.g., twist) and find that ambiguity between multiple meanings delays recognition.
Journal ArticleDOI
Individual and developmental differences in semantic priming : Empirical and computational support for a single-mechanism account of lexical processing
David C. Plaut,James R. Booth +1 more
TL;DR: The authors provide empirical and computational support for a single-mechanism distributed network account and provide an account of these results in terms of the properties of distributed network models and support this account with an explicit computational simulation.
Journal ArticleDOI
An endogenous distributed model of ordering in serial recall
TL;DR: A distributed model of memory for serial order, called SOB, that produces ordered serial recall by relying on encoding and retrieval processes that are endogenous to the model, demonstrates that distributed representations can support unambiguous recall, selective response suppression, and novelty-sensitive encoding.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities
TL;DR: A model of a system having a large number of simple equivalent components, based on aspects of neurobiology but readily adapted to integrated circuits, produces a content-addressable memory which correctly yields an entire memory from any subpart of sufficient size.
Book
Computational analysis of present-day American English
Henry Kučera,W. Nelson Francis,W. F. Twaddell,Mary Lois Marckworth,Laura M. Bell,John Bissell Carroll +5 more
Journal ArticleDOI
An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: I. An account of basic findings.
Journal ArticleDOI
A capacity theory of comprehension: individual differences in working memory.
TL;DR: A theory of the way working memory capacity constrains comprehension is proposed, which proposes that both processing and storage are mediated by activation and that the total amount of activation available in working memory varies among individuals.