Gilbert, Rebecca A, Davis, Matthew H, Gaskell, M Gareth orcid.org/0000-0001-8325-1427 et al. (1 more author) (2018) Listeners and readers generalize their experience with word meanings across modalities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. pp. 1533-1561. ISSN 1939-1285
Abstract
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 min 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 with 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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Author(s) |
Keywords: | Adolescent,Adult,Association,Female,Generalization, Psychological,Humans,Male,Middle Aged,Psycholinguistics,Reading,Repetition Priming,Semantics,Speech Perception,Vocabulary,Young Adult |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 14 Apr 2021 09:30 |
Last Modified: | 05 Nov 2024 01:22 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000532 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1037/xlm0000532 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:173077 |