Retuning of lexical-semantic representations: Repetition and spacing effects in word-meaning priming

Abstract

Current models of word-meaning access typically assume that lexical-semantic representations of ambiguous words (e.g., 'bark of the dog/tree') reach a relatively stable state in adulthood, with only the relative frequencies of meanings and immediate sentence context determining meaning preference. However, recent experience also affects interpretation: recently encountered word-meanings become more readily available (Rodd et al., 2016, 2013). Here, 3 experiments investigated how multiple encounters with word-meanings influence the subsequent interpretation of these ambiguous words. Participants heard ambiguous words contextually-disambiguated towards a particular meaning and, after a 20- to 30-min delay, interpretations of the words were tested in isolation. We replicate the finding that 1 encounter with an ambiguous word biased the later interpretation of this word towards the primed meaning for both subordinate (Experiments 1, 2, 3) and dominant meanings (Experiment 1). In addition, for the first time, we show cumulative effects of multiple repetitions of both the same and different meanings. The effect of a single subordinate exposure persisted after a subsequent encounter with the dominant meaning, compared to a dominant exposure alone (Experiment 1). Furthermore, 3 subordinate word-meaning repetitions provided an additional boost to priming compared to 1, although only when their presentation was spaced (Experiments 2, 3); massed repetitions provided no such boost (Experiments 1, 3). These findings indicate that comprehension is guided by the collective effect of multiple recently activated meanings and that the spacing of these activations is key to producing lasting updates to the lexical-semantic network. (PsycINFO Database Record

Figure 1

Experiment 1 task order, including prime phase elements, filler task, and test. The mean duration of each task is displayed below the figure.

Figure 2

Experiment 1. Subject mean proportion of word association responses consistent with the primed subordinate meaning, with standard error bars adjusted for the within-subjects design. Significance level indicated with asterisks (* p < .05. ** p <.01) and simple effects shown for the theoretically important contrasts.

Figure 3

Experiment 2 task order, including prime phase elements, filler task, and test. The mean duration of each task is displayed below the figure.

Figure 4

Experiment 2. Subject mean proportion of word association responses consistent with the primed subordinate meaning, with standard error bars adjusted for the within-subjects design and significance level indicated with asterisks (* p < .05. *** p <.001).

Figure 5

Experiment 3 task order, including prime phase elements, filler task, and test. The mean duration of each task is displayed below the figure.

Figure 6

Experiment 3. Subject mean proportions of word association responses consistent with the primed subordinate meaning, with standard error bars adjusted for the within-subjects design and significance level indicated with asterisks (* p < .05. ** p <.01. *** p <.001).