scholarly journals Mechanisms of word concreteness effects in explicit memory: Does context availability play a role?

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randolph S. Taylor ◽  
Wendy S. Francis ◽  
Lara Borunda-Vazquez ◽  
Jacqueline Carbajal
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Memory ◽  
Context Availability ◽  
Word Concreteness

Mapping concrete and abstract meanings to new words using verbal contexts

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mestres-Missé ◽  
Thomas F Münte ◽  
Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells
Keyword(s):  
Concrete Word ◽  
Abstract Word ◽  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
New Words ◽  
Concreteness Effect ◽  
Context Availability ◽  
Word Concreteness ◽  
Stimulus Materials ◽  
New Evidence

In three experiments, we examine the effects of semantic context and word concreteness on the mapping of existing meanings to new words. We developed a new-word-learning paradigm in which participants were required to discover the meaning of a new-word form from a specific verbal context. The stimulus materials were manipulated according to word concreteness, context availability and semantic congruency across contexts. Overall, participants successfully learned the meaning of the new word whether it was a concrete or an abstract word. Concrete word meanings were discovered and learned faster than abstract word meanings even when matched on context availability. The present results are discussed considering the various hypotheses that have been used to try to explain the ‘concreteness effect’. We conclude that the present investigation provides new evidence that the concreteness effect observed in learning is due to the different organization of abstract and concrete conceptual information in semantic memory.

scholarly journals Context Availability and the Development of Word Reading Skill

1996 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula J. Schwanenflugel ◽  
Caroline R. Noyes
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Reading Accuracy ◽  
Context Availability ◽  
Skilled Reading ◽  
Word Concreteness ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
5Th Grade ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

The influence of word meanings on lexical processing in 2nd-, 3nd-, and 5th-grade high- and low-skill readers was examined. Two experiments examined the relationship between semantic correlates of word concreteness (specifically, rated imageability and context availability) and lexical processing speed and accuracy. Rated context availability was a significant predictor of lexical decision times and word reading accuracy beyond nonsemantic factors. However, context-availability effects were larger in young and low-skill readers. Thus, the ability to retrieve the meanings of low-context-availability words easily is an important component in the development of skilled reading.

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