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Lexical access during sentence comprehension: (Re)consideration of context effects (1979)
| Venue: | Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior |
| Citations: | 296 - 14 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Swinney79lexicalaccess,
author = {David A. Swinney and Janet Dorfzahn Sara Robinowitz},
title = {Lexical access during sentence comprehension: (Re)consideration of context effects},
journal = {Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior},
year = {1979},
pages = {546--659}
}
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Abstract
The effects of prior semantic context upon lexical access during sentence comprehension were examined in two experiments. In both studies, subjects comprehended auditorily presented sentences containing lexical ambiguities and simultaneously performed a lexical decision task upon visually presented letter strings. Lexical decisions for visual words related to each of the meanings of the ambiguity were facilitated when these words were presented simultaneous with the end of the ambiguity (Experiment 1). This effect held even when a strong biasing context was present ` When presented four syllables following the ambiguity, only lexical decisions for visual words related to the contextually appropriate meaning of the ambiguity were facilitated (Experiment 2). Arguments are made for autonomy of the lexical access process of a model of semantic context effects is offered. Sentence comprehension requires the integration of information derived from a number of ongoing cognitive processes. It is clear, for example, that semantic and syntactic contexts interact with moment-to-moment comprehension processes to affect our interpretation of individual words and sentences; observations that contexts act to determine sentential interpretations abound in the literature. However, while this effect is well documented, the process by which it occurs is not. Until the manner in which contexts exert their effects (i.e., the nature of information interaction) can be detailed, claims relying on the concept of "contextual determination" are empty and merely beg the question.
Keyphrases
sentence comprehension lexical access context effect lexical decision visual word moment-to-moment comprehension lexical access process contextual determination lexical decision task cognitive process strong biasing context sentential interpretation semantic context effect syntactic context appropriate meaning individual word letter string information interaction lexical ambiguity context act prior semantic context
