Maciejewski, G, Rodd, JM, Mon-Williams, M orcid.org/0000-0001-7595-8545 et al. (1 more author) (2020) The cost of learning new meanings for familiar words. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 35 (2). pp. 188-210. ISSN 2327-3798
Abstract
<p>Research has shown that adults are highly skilled at learning new words and meanings. Here, we examined whether learning new meanings for familiar words affects the processing of their existing meanings. In Experiments 1 and 2, adult participants learnt new, fictitious meanings for previously unambiguous words (e.g., “sip” denoting a small amount of computer data) through four 30-minute training sessions completed over four consecutive days. We tested participants’ comprehension of existing meanings before and after training using a semantic relatedness decision task in which the probe word was related to the existing but not the new meaning of the trained word (e.g., “sip-juice”). Following the training, responses were slower to the trained, but not to the untrained, words, indicating competition between newly-acquired and well-established meanings. Furthermore, consistent with studies of semantic ambiguity, the effect was smaller for meanings that were semantically related to existing meanings than for the unrelated counterparts, demonstrating that meaning relatedness modulates the degree of competition. Overall, the key findings confirm that new word meanings can be integrated into the mental lexicon after just a few days’ exposure, and provide support for current models of ambiguity that predict semantic competition in word comprehension.</p>
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Language, Cognition and Neuroscience on 12th July 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/23273798.2019.1642500 |
Keywords: | Lexical/semantic ambiguity, semantic processing, word comprehension, vocabulary, language acquisition |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jul 2019 11:08 |
Last Modified: | 12 Jul 2020 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/23273798.2019.1642500 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:148039 |