Author, as appears in the article.: Haro J., Ferré P.

Department: Psicologia

URV's Author/s: Ferré Romeu, Maria Pilar / Haro Rodriguez, Juan

Keywords: Word recognition Semantic ambiguity Multiple meanings Ambiguity disadvantage Ambiguity advantage semantic ambiguity multiple meanings ambiguity disadvantage ambiguity advantage

Abstract: It is not clear whether multiple unrelated meanings inhibit or facilitate word recognition. Some studies have found a disadvantage for words having multiple meanings with respect to unambiguous words in lexical decision tasks (LDT), whereas several others have shown a facilitation for such words. In the present study, we argue that these inconsistent findings may be due to the approach employed to select ambiguous words across studies. To address this issue, we conducted three LDT experiments in which we varied the measure used to classify ambiguous and unambiguous words. The results suggest that multiple unrelated meanings facilitate word recognition. In addition, we observed that the approach employed to select ambiguous words may affect the pattern of experimental results. This evidence has relevant implications for theoretical accounts of ambiguous words processing and representation.

Thematic Areas: Psychology, experimental Psychology (miscellaneous) Psychology (all) Psicología Linguistics and language Linguistics Language and linguistics Language & linguistics General psychology Filologia, lingüística i sociolingüística Experimental and cognitive psychology Educação física Ciencias sociales Ciencias humanas Applied linguistics

licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

ISSN: 00906905

Author's mail: juan.haro@urv.cat mariadelpilar.ferre@urv.cat

Author identifier: 0000-0002-3456-4731 0000-0002-3192-0040

Record's date: 2023-02-18

Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Link to the original source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10936-017-9554-3

Licence document URL: http://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/

Papper original source: Journal Of Psycholinguistic Research. 47 (3): 679-698

APA: Haro J., Ferré P. (2018). Semantic ambiguity: Do multiple meanings inhibit or facilitate word recognition?. Journal Of Psycholinguistic Research, 47(3), 679-698. DOI: 10.1007/s10936-017-9554-3

Article's DOI: 10.1007/s10936-017-9554-3

Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Journal publication year: 2018

Publication Type: Journal Publications