Semantic Ambiguity: Do Multiple Meanings Inhibit or Facilitate Word Recognition?

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
It is not clear whether multiple unrelated meanings inhibit or facilitate word recognition. Some studies have found a disadvantage for words having multiple meanings with respect to unambiguous words in lexical decision tasks (LDT), whereas several others have shown a facilitation for such words. In the present study, we argue that these inconsistent findings may be due to the approach employed to select ambiguous words across studies. To address this issue, we conducted three LDT experiments in which we varied the measure used to classify ambiguous and unambiguous words. The results suggest that multiple unrelated meanings facilitate word recognition. In addition, we observed that the approach employed to select ambiguous words may affect the pattern of experimental results. This evidence has relevant implications for theoretical accounts of ambiguous words processing and representation.
Funding Information
  • Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2015-63525-P)
  • Research Promotion Program of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2014PFR-URV-B2-37)
  • Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2015PMF-PIPF-16)

This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit: