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For better or worse: Modelling effects of semantic ambiguity.
Authors:
Rodd, J., Gaskell, G. & MARSLEN-WILSON, W.D.
Reference:
In J.D. Moore and K. Stenning (Eds), Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 868-868. London, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.
Year of publication:
2001
CBU number:
5196
Abstract:
Several studies have reported an advantage in lexical decision for words with multiple meanings. More recently, Rodd, Gaskell, & Marslen-Wilson (in press) have reported a more complex pattern of ambiguity effects. While there is a processing advantage for words that have many highly related word senses (e.g., twist), there is a disadvantage for words that have more than one meaning (e.g., bark). Here we show that these two apparently opposite effects of ambiguity can both emerge from the competition to activate a coherent semantic representation in an attractor network. Ambiguity between unrelated meanings delays recognition because of interference between the two possible stable patterns of semantic activation, that correspond to separate attractor basins. In contrast, the patterns of semantic activation that correspond to different senses of the same word meaning all lie within a single attractor basin, and the semantic flexibility associated with these words results in a widening of the attractor basin, thus produces a processing advantage relative to unambiguous words.
