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. 2009 Jan;34(1):161-173.
doi: 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01069.x.

Effect of Representational Distance between Meanings on Recognition of Ambiguous Spoken Words

Daniel Mirman  1 , Ted J Strauss, James A Dixon, James S Magnuson
Affiliations

Effect of Representational Distance between Meanings on Recognition of Ambiguous Spoken Words

Daniel Mirman et al. Cogn Sci. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Previous research indicates that mental representations of word meanings are distributed along both semantic and syntactic dimensions such that nouns and verbs are relatively distinct from one another. Two experiments examined the effect of representational distance between meanings on recognition of ambiguous spoken words by comparing recognition of unambiguous words, noun-verb homonyms, and noun-noun homonyms. In Experiment 1, auditory lexical decision was fastest for unambiguous words, slower for noun-verb homonyms, and slowest for noun-noun homonyms. In Experiment 2, response times for matching spoken words to pictures followed the same pattern and eye fixation time courses revealed converging, gradual time course differences between conditions. These results indicate greater competition between meanings of ambiguous words when the meanings are from the same grammatical class (noun-noun homonyms) than they when are from different grammatical classes (noun-verb homonyms).

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Experiment 1 response time results. Error bars indicate ±SE.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Time course of target fixation in Experiment 2. Symbols indicate observed data (error bars indicate ±SE), lines show the fit of the growth curve model.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic depiction of proposed relationship between representational distance and effect of ambiguity on word recognition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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