Multiple meanings are not necessarily a disadvantage in semantic processing: Evidence from homophone effects in semantic categorisation

Authors: Siakaluk, Paul¹; Pexman, Penny²; Sears, Christopher²; Owen, William¹

Source: Language and Cognitive Processes, Volume 22, Number 3, April 2007 , pp. 453-467(15)

Publisher: Psychology Press, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

The ambiguity disadvantage (slower processing of ambiguous words relative to unambiguous words) has been taken as evidence for a distributed semantic representational system like that embodied in parallel distributed processing (PDP) models. In the present study, we investigated whether semantic ambiguity slows meaning activation, as PDP models would predict, by examining homophone effects in semantic categorisation tasks. We observed a homophone effect in a go/no-go semantic categorisation task, but not in a yes/no semantic categorisation task. Our results suggest that previously reported ambiguity effects may have been due to the decision phase of the semantic categorisation task and not to the semantic processing phase, in which case the interpretation of the ambiguity disadvantage will need to be reconsidered.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01690960600834756

Affiliations: 1: University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada 2: University of Calgary, Alberta, Calgary, Canada

Publication date: 2007-04-01

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