In the company of other words: Electrophysiological evidence for single-word and sentence context effects

We examined how linguistic context influences the nature of bilingual lexical activation. We hypothesized that in single-word context, form-related words would receive the strongest activation while, in sentence context, semantically related words would receive the strongest activation. Spanish–English bilinguals performed a semantic verification task on English target words preceded by a prime. On critical trials, the prime and target words were paired based either on a form-mediated relationship through the native language (L1), [e.g., bark (barco): BOAT] (Experiment 1) or on a semantically-mediated relationship [e.g., boat (barco): BARK] (Experiment 2). The prime word was presented either in isolation or after a sentence context. In Experiment 1 interference was observed in the single word condition only. In Experiment 2 interference was observed in both single-word and sentence contexts. The findings demonstrate that the context in which words are embedded has an impact on the type of lexical competitors that become active.

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Lexical and message-level sentence context effects on fixation times in reading.

Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition ◽

10.1037/0278-7393.20.1.92 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 92-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 75

Author(s):

Robin K. Morris

Keyword(s):

Context Effects ◽

Sentence Context

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Single-word shadowing and the study of lexical access

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716400009954 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 157-180 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Hua Liu ◽

Elizabeth Bates ◽

Tracy Powell ◽

Beverly Wulfeck

Keyword(s):

Semantic Priming ◽

Lexical Access ◽

Context Effects ◽

Single Word ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Secondary Tasks ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Promising Tool ◽

Different Populations ◽

Age Range

ABSTRACTA new procedure called single-word shadowing was applied to the study of lexical access in context. Subjects listened to word pairs or sentences recorded in one voice and were asked to repeat the target word signaled by a voice shift. This technique yielded rapid and robust priming effects in normal adult subjects in word pairs and in a sentence context. Regression analyses showed that the semantic priming effects were large and significant, even when several additional factors believed to affect lexical access were controlled. Evidence was found for robust semantic priming in the healthy elderly and in children from 7 to 11 years of age, and there was also evidence for a change in the size and nature of context effects across the lifespan. Because single-word shadowing works across a broad age range and does not require reading, secondary tasks, or metalinguistic judgments, it is a promising tool for the study of lexical access in a range of different populations.

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Written sentence context effects on acoustic-phonetic perception: fMRI reveals cross-modal semantic-perceptual interactions

Brain and Language ◽

10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104698 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 199 ◽

pp. 104698 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sara Guediche ◽

Yuli Zhu ◽

Domenic Minicucci ◽

Sheila E. Blumstein

Keyword(s):

Context Effects ◽

Sentence Context ◽

Phonetic Perception ◽

Modal Semantic

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Strategic control of sentence context effects in a naming task

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/14640748708401786 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 253-275 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Dennis Norris

Keyword(s):

Context Effect ◽

Context Effects ◽

Contextual Information ◽

Naming Task ◽

Sentence Context ◽

Baseline Condition ◽

Strategic Control ◽

Practice Session ◽

Experimental Trials

This paper reports an experiment that demonstrates strategic influences on sentence context effects in a naming task. The size of the sentence context effect is shown to be influenced by the validity of the contextual information. A similar result is obtained simply by changing the proportion of validly completed sentences in the practice session without altering the composition of the experimental trials themselves. The manipulation of context validity was found to have its effect largely on the facilitatory component of the context effect. This dissociation of facilitation and inhibition is shown to be contrary to the predictions of attentional accounts of priming but in line with an explanation of contexts effects based on a mechanism that has evolved primarily to resolve lexical and perceptual ambiguity (Norris, 1986). In a further experiment it is shown that the facilitatory effects of sentence context observed in Experiment 1 are not dependent on the particular baseline condition employed.

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