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

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.

scholarly journals Listeners and Readers Generalise Their Experience With Word Meanings Across Modalities

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.

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

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.

scholarly journals Gaming experience affects the interpretation of ambiguous words

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243512
Author(s):  
Rachel B. Eligio ◽  
Michael P. Kaschak
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Related Word ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Message Boards ◽  
Association Task ◽  
Ambiguous Words

Rodd et al. (2016) report that recreational rowers’ acquisition of sport-related terminology affected their interpretation of words that have both rowing-related and non-rowing-related meanings (e.g., crab). The extent to which the rowing- and non-rowing-related meanings were accessible to the participants depended on experiential factors, such as how long the participant had been a rower, and how long it had been since they last rowed. We present two experiments that attempt to replicate these findings with another group of hobbyists, namely video game players. Experiment 1 examined the differences in word meaning choice between gamers and non-gamers. Participation in video-gaming lead to participants generating more gaming-related word meanings in a word association task. Experiment 2 further examined the effects of video gaming experience on the lexical representation of gaming-related words. Participants who had spent more years as gamers were more likely to produce gaming-related word meanings in a word association task. The effect of time spent gaming was no longer significant when we took into account whether the participant engaged with video-game related media (such as YouTube channels or gaming-related message boards). This finding helps us to refine our understanding of the results reported by Rodd et al. (2016), suggesting that it may not be the time spent in an activity that affects the interpretation of ambiguous words, but rather the specific exposure to activity-related vocabulary.

Semantic ambiguity norms for 530 Spanish words

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUAN HARO ◽  
PILAR FERRÉ ◽  
ROGER BOADA ◽  
JOSEP DEMESTRE
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Semantic Ambiguity ◽  
Subjective Ratings ◽  
Subjective Measures ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Ambiguous Words

ABSTRACTThis study presents semantic ambiguity norms for 530 Spanish words. Two subjective measures of semantic ambiguity and two subjective measures of relatedness of ambiguous word meanings were collected. In addition, two objective measures of semantic ambiguity were included. Furthermore, subjective ratings were obtained for some relevant lexicosemantic variables, such as concreteness, familiarity, emotional valence, arousal, and age of acquisition. In sum, the database overcomes some of the limitations of the published databases of Spanish ambiguous words; in particular, the scarcity of measures of ambiguity, the lack of relatedness of ambiguous word meanings measures, and the absence of a set of unambiguous words. Thus, it will be very helpful for researchers interested in exploring semantic ambiguity as well as for those using semantic ambiguous words to study language processing in clinical populations.

A connection in lexical development

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 157-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marja van Helden-Lankhaar
Keyword(s):  
Word Association ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Novel Concept ◽  
Lexical Relations ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship is examined between two different domains of lexical development: innovative compounding and access to abstract lexical relations. The creation of novel compounds as appropriate labels for novel concepts requires the accessibility of relatively abstract relations between word meanings in the mental lexicon. In a picture naming task in which novel concepts have to be labeled (e.g., a vehicle that can both sail and drive) children’s production of appropriate novel compounds (e.g., car-boat) increases with age. This compound production is, independently of age, related to children’s ability to access coordinate lexical relations (such as between cat and dog) in a contrastive word association task (‘a cat is not a...?’). It is proposed that this connection between innovative compounding and access to coordinate relations is cognitive in nature and involves a common ability for lexical comparisons. Innovative compounding reflects comparison ‘on the spot’ between the novel concept and available related word meaning knowledge, and contrastive coordinate production reflects the results of developmentally earlier comparison processes evoked by adult contrastive input.

Sense and Sensitivity – Using Spatial Response-Compatibility Effects to Investigate Ambiguous Word Meaning

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Christian Büsel ◽  
Pierre Sachse ◽  
Ole Goltermann ◽  
Ulrich Ansorge
Keyword(s):  
Compatibility Effect ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Letter Sequence ◽  
Response Compatibility ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Spatial Response ◽  
Stimulus Response Compatibility

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.

scholarly journals Contextual priming of word meanings is stabilized over sleep

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gareth Gaskell ◽  
Scott Cairney ◽  
Jennifer M Rodd
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
New Words ◽  
Word Association Test ◽  
Sleep Benefit ◽  
Subordinate Meaning ◽  
Contextual Binding

Evidence is growing for the involvement of consolidation processes in the learning and retention of language, largely based on instances of new linguistic components (e.g., new words). Here, we assessed whether consolidation effects extend to the semantic processing of highly familiar words. The experiments were based on the word-meaning priming paradigm in which a homophone is encountered in a context that biases interpretation towards the subordinate meaning. The homophone is subsequently used in a word-association test to determine whether the priming encounter facilitates the retrieval of the primed meaning. In Experiment 1 (N = 74), we tested the resilience of priming over periods of 2 and 12 hours that were spent awake or asleep, and found that sleep periods were associated with stronger subsequent priming effects. In Experiment 2 (N = 55) we tested whether the sleep benefit could be explained in terms of a lack of retroactive interference by testing participants 24 hours after priming. Participants who had the priming encounter in the evening showed stronger priming effects after 24 hours than participants primed in the morning, suggesting that sleep makes priming resistant to interference during the following day awake. The results suggest that consolidation effects can be found even for highly familiar linguistic materials. We interpret these findings in terms of a contextual binding account in which all language perception provides a learning opportunity, with sleep and consolidation contributing to the updating of our expectations, ready for the next day.

scholarly journals The relationship between sentence comprehension and lexical-semantic retuning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Anne Gilbert ◽  
Matthew H. Davis ◽  
M. Gareth Gaskell ◽  
Jennifer M Rodd
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Ambiguous Words ◽  
Subordinate Meaning ◽  
Final Interpretation ◽  
The Relationship

A single encounter with an ambiguous word (e.g. bark, ball) in the context of a less-frequent meaning (e.g. “Sally worried about how crowded the ball would be.”) can shift the later interpretation of the word toward the same subordinate meaning. This lexical-semantic retuning functions to improve future comprehension of ambiguous words. The present paper investigates the relationship between this form of learning and the specific processes that occur during sentence comprehension. One possibility is that lexical-semantic retuning occurs immediately upon hearing the ambiguous word, during initial meaning activation and selection, so priming should be strongest when the disambiguating context is provided before the ambiguous word (prior disambiguation). Alternatively, priming may relate to the degree of reinterpretation needed, which would predict maximal learning when the word is initially misunderstood because the critical context is given after the word (subsequent disambiguation, e.g. “Sally worried that the ball would be too crowded.”). In four experiments, adults listened to prior and subsequent disambiguation sentences, and were later tested on their interpretations of primed and unprimed ambiguous words. The results showed that lexical-semantic retuning can occur for both sentence types. Importantly, however, the emergence of priming for subsequent disambiguation sentences was sensitive to the prime conditions: when the task could potentially be performed without needing to re-analyse the ambiguity, then no significant priming was observed. This is consistent with the ‘good enough’ view of language processing which states that representations can remain as (im)precise as mandated by the situation, and that lexical-semantic retuning operates on the output of good-enough interpretation. More generally, our findings suggest that lexical-semantic retuning is driven by participants’ final interpretation of the word meanings during the prime encounter, regardless of initial meaning activation or misinterpretation.

Suppression of irrelevant ambiguous word meanings in the cerebral hemispheres

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Chiarello ◽  
Kim Cannon ◽  
Lorie Richards ◽  
Lisa Maxfield
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Cerebral Hemispheres ◽  
Word Meanings

scholarly journals Contribution to Semantic Analysis of Arabic Language

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anis Zouaghi ◽  
Mounir Zrigui ◽  
Georges Antoniadis ◽  
Laroussi Merhbene
Keyword(s):  
Information Retrieval ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
String Matching ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Matching Algorithm ◽  
Ambiguous Words ◽  
Lesk Algorithm ◽  
Context Of Use

We propose a new approach for determining the adequate sense of Arabic words. For that, we propose an algorithm based on information retrieval measures to identify the context of use that is the closest to the sentence containing the word to be disambiguated. The contexts of use represent a set of sentences that indicates a particular sense of the ambiguous word. These contexts are generated using the words that define the senses of the ambiguous words, the exact string-matching algorithm, and the corpus. We use the measures employed in the domain of information retrieval, Harman, Croft, and Okapi combined to the Lesk algorithm, to assign the correct sense of those proposed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document