Abstract
Evidence that lexical access is guided by context was obtained using a cross-modal, semantic priming paradigm. Subjects heard homonyms presented in context that favored only one meaning and made lexical decisions to contextually appropriate, inappropriate, or unrelated target words that were presented visually. In Experiment 1, responses were facilitated for only the contextually appropriate targets, at both 50 and 200 ms interstimulus intervals. In Experiment 2, the range of interstimulus intervals was increased and subjects were encouraged to consider multiple meanings of homonyms. Even with this orientation, lexical decisions were facilitated for only the contextually appropriate targets. This pattern of selective access was maintained across the full-time course of automatic activation, suggesting that the lexicon operates interactively rather than autonomously. These findings indicate that multiple, context-independent access of word meanings should not continue to be viewed as a mandatory operation of the language comprehension system.
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This research was conducted as part of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of California, Los Angeles. The Chair of the dissertation committee, Thomas D. Wickens, was especially helpful and supportive during every stage of this project. The assistance provided by committee members (Patricia Cheng, Victoria Fromkin, Eric Holman, Donald MacKay, and John Schumann) is also appreciated.
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Jones, J.L. Early integration of context during lexical access of homonym meanings. Current Psychology 10, 163–181 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686773
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686773