Cerebral Hemispheric Mechanisms Linking Ambiguous Word Meaning Retrieval and Creativity

Abstract. We investigated sensitivity for the vertical meaning of the German particle ab by means of stimulus–response compatibility effects. In German, the particle ab is ambiguous and can take on a vertical meaning (downward) as in Auf und Ab (engl. up and down), but it can also take on nonvertical or nonspatial meanings as in Ab und An (engl. from time to time). We show that the particle ab only creates a spatial compatibility effect relative to the German particle auf (Experiment 1) but not relative to the particle an (Experiment 2). Furthermore, as participants executed upward versus downward responses in both Experiments 1 and 2, the mere vertical antagonism of the responses was insufficient to instill a verticality-based compatibility effect. In addition, the compatibility effect was restricted to the transparent version of the particle. If a letter sequence corresponding to the particles was presented in a semantically and morphologically opaque way (e.g., the letters ab were embedded in the German word kn ab e, engl. boy), no compatibility effect was found, underlining that the effect was due to word meanings rather than visual features. The results underscore the boundary conditions for using compatibility effects in investigating lexical and semantic spatial processing in humans.

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Cerebral hemispheric mechanisms in the retrieval of ambiguous word meanings

Brain and Language ◽

10.1016/0093-934x(88)90056-9 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 86-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 301

Author(s):

Curt Burgess ◽

Greg B. Simpson

Keyword(s):

Ambiguous Word ◽

Word Meanings ◽

Hemispheric Mechanisms

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The Effects of Age-of-Acquisition on Ambiguity Resolution: Evidence from Eye Movements

Journal of Eye Movement Research ◽

10.16910/jemr.4.1.4 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Barbara J. Juhasz ◽

Margaret M. Gullick ◽

Leah W. Shesler

Keyword(s):

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Semantic Representation ◽

Word Meaning ◽

Mental Lexicon ◽

Ambiguous Word ◽

Age Of Acquisition ◽

Sentence Context ◽

Multiple Levels ◽

Meaning Frequency

Words that are rated as acquired earlier in life receive shorter fixation durations than later acquired words, even when word frequency is adequately controlled (Juhasz & Rayner, 2003; 2006). Some theories posit that age-of-acquisition (AoA) affects the semantic representation of words (e.g., Steyvers & Tenenbaum, 2005), while others suggest that AoA should have an influence at multiple levels in the mental lexicon (e.g. Ellis & Lambon Ralph, 2000). In past studies, early and late AoA words have differed from each other in orthography, phonology, and meaning, making it difficult to localize the influence of AoA. Two experiments are reported which examined the locus of AoA effects in reading. Both experiments used balanced ambiguous words which have two equally-frequent meanings acquired at different times (e.g. pot, tick). In Experiment 1, sentence context supporting either the early- or late-acquired meaning was presented prior to the ambiguous word; in Experiment 2, disambiguating context was presented after the ambiguous word. When prior context disambiguated the ambiguous word, meaning AoA influenced the processing of the target word. However, when disambiguating sentence context followed the ambiguous word, meaning frequency was the more important variable and no effect of meaning AoA was observed. These results, when combined with the past results of Juhasz and Rayner (2003; 2006) suggest that AoA influences access to multiple levels of representation in the mental lexicon. The results also have implications for theories of lexical ambiguity resolution, as they suggest that variables other than meaning frequency and context can influence resolution of noun-noun ambiguities.

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Retuning of lexical-semantic representations: Repetition and spacing effects in word-meaning priming.

10.31234/osf.io/stu64 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Hannah Betts ◽

Rebecca Anne Gilbert ◽

Zhenguang Garry Cai ◽

Zainab B. Okedara ◽

Jennifer M Rodd

Keyword(s):

Semantic Network ◽

Word Meaning ◽

Stable State ◽

Ambiguous Word ◽

Recent Experience ◽

Semantic Representations ◽

Word Meanings ◽

Lexical Semantic ◽

Spacing Effects ◽

Ambiguous Words

Current models of word-meaning access typically assume that lexical-semantic representations of ambiguous words (e.g. ‘bark of the dog/tree’) reach a relatively stable state in adulthood, with only the relative frequencies of the meanings in the language and immediate sentence context determining meaning preference. However, recent experience also affects interpretation: recently-encountered word-meanings become more readily available (Rodd et al., 2016; 2013). Here, three experiments investigated how multiple encounters with word-meanings influence the subsequent interpretation of these words. Participants heard ambiguous words contextually-disambiguated towards a particular meaning and, after a 20-30 minute delay, interpretations of the words were tested in isolation. We replicate the finding that one encounter with an ambiguous word biased later interpretation of this word towards the primed meaning for both subordinate (Experiments 1, 2, 3) and dominant meanings (Experiment 1). In addition, for the first time, we show cumulative effects of multiple repetitions of both the same and different meanings. The effect of a single subordinate exposure persisted after a subsequent encounter with the dominant meaning, compared to a dominant exposure alone (Experiment 1). Furthermore, three subordinate word-meaning repetitions provided an additional boost to priming compared to one, although only when their presentation was spaced (Experiments 2, 3); massed repetitions provided no such boost (Experiments 1, 3). These findings indicate that comprehension is guided by the collective effect of multiple recently activated meanings and that the spacing of these activations is key to producing lasting updates to the lexical-semantic network.

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Listeners and Readers Generalise Their Experience With Word Meanings Across Modalities

10.31234/osf.io/7492a ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Rebecca Anne Gilbert ◽

Matthew H. Davis ◽

M. Gareth Gaskell ◽

Jennifer M Rodd

Keyword(s):

Priming Effect ◽

Word Association ◽

Word Meaning ◽

Ambiguous Word ◽

Semantic Relatedness ◽

Recent Experience ◽

Word Meanings ◽

Ambiguous Words ◽

Subordinate Meaning ◽

Target Words

Research has shown that adults’ lexical-semantic representations are surprisingly malleable. For instance, the interpretation of ambiguous words (e.g. bark) is influenced by experience such that recently encountered meanings become more readily available (Rodd et al., 2016, 2013). However the mechanism underlying this word-meaning priming effect remains unclear, and competing accounts make different predictions about the extent to which information about word meanings that is gained within one modality (e.g. speech) is transferred to the other modality (e.g. reading) to aid comprehension. In two web-based experiments, ambiguous target words were primed with either written or spoken sentences that biased their interpretation toward a subordinate meaning, or were unprimed. About 20 minutes after the prime exposure, interpretation of these target words was tested by presenting them in either written or spoken form, using word association (Experiment 1, N=78) and speeded semantic relatedness decisions (Experiment 2, N=181). Both experiments replicated the auditory unimodal priming effect shown previously (Rodd et al., 2016, 2013) and revealed significant cross-modal priming: primed meanings were retrieved more frequently and swiftly across all primed conditions compared to the unprimed baseline. Furthermore, there were no reliable differences in priming levels between unimodal and cross-modal prime-test conditions. These results indicate that recent experience with ambiguous word meanings can bias the reader’s or listener’s later interpretation of these words in a modality-general way. We identify possible loci of this effect within the context of models of long-term priming and ambiguity resolution.

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Learning about the Meanings of Ambiguous Words: Evidence from a Word-Meaning Priming Paradigm with Short Narratives

10.31234/osf.io/5wz8e ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Lena Maria Blott ◽

Oliver Hartopp ◽

Kate Nation ◽

Jennifer M Rodd

Keyword(s):

Word Association ◽

Selection Process ◽

Digit Span ◽

Word Meaning ◽

Ambiguous Word ◽

Recent Experience ◽

Word Meanings ◽

River Bank ◽

Ambiguous Words ◽

Priming Paradigm

Fluent language comprehension requires readers and listeners to rapidly select an appropriate meaning for each word that they encounter. This meaning selection process is particularly challenging when low-frequency (subordinate) word meanings are used (e.g. the “river bank” meaning of “bank”). Recent word-meaning priming experiments show that recent experience can help to make subordinate word meanings more readily available, and thereby reduce the difficulty in accessing these meanings. One limitation of previous word-meaning priming experiments is that participants encounter the ambiguous words within a list of unconnected single sentences in which each ambiguous word is strongly disambiguated by words within the prime sentence. The current web-based study (N=51) extends this work to replicate word-meaning priming using short 3-sentence narratives as primes in which relatively weak contextual cues in sentence 1 serve to disambiguate a target ambiguous word that occurs in sentence 3. The results from the subsequent word-association test task confirmed that following a short delay (digit span) task the primed (subordinate) meanings were more readily available compared with an unprimed control. This work represents an important first step in moving the word-meaning priming paradigm towards materials that more reflect the varied ways in which ambiguous words are used within natural language.

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