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Activating Basic Category Exemplars in Sentence Contexts: A Dynamical Account

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Abstract

This paper examines the influence of context on the processing of category names embedded in sentences. The investigation focuses on the nature of information available immediately after such a word is heard as well as on the dynamics of adaptation to context. An on-line method (Cross Modal Lexical Priming) was used to trace how this process unfolds in time. We found that the information available immediately after a category word is presented is not altered by the sentence context in which the word is immersed. Rather, the structure of availability of particular exemplars of the category resembles the typicality structure of a conceptual representation. The adaptation to context occurs later (between 300 and 450 ms after the category word) and takes the form of a rapid reorganization of the structure rather than a gradual activation of a contextually relevant exemplar. We claim that such data is best accounted for in a dynamical framework, where a coherent global structure emerges through locally guided self-organization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of Warsaw, ul.Stawki 5/7, 00-183, Warsaw, Poland

    Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi

  2. School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Lewis P. Shapiro

  3. Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Betty Tuller & J. A. Scott. Kelso

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  1. Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi
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  2. Lewis P. Shapiro
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  4. J. A. Scott. Kelso
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Correspondence to Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi.

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Rączaszek-Leonardi, J., Shapiro, L.P., Tuller, B. et al. Activating Basic Category Exemplars in Sentence Contexts: A Dynamical Account. J Psycholinguist Res 37, 87–113 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-007-9061-z

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