The effects of context, meaning frequency, and associative strength on semantic selection: Distinct contributions from each cerebral hemisphere

doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2007.09.007

Brain Research

Volume 1183, 5 December 2007, Pages 91-108

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2007.09.007 Get rights and content

Abstract

The visual half-field procedure was used to examine hemispheric asymmetries in meaning selection. Event-related potentials were recorded as participants decided if a lateralized ambiguous or unambiguous prime was related in meaning to a centrally presented target. Prime–target pairs were preceded by a related or unrelated centrally presented context word. To separate the effects of meaning frequency and associative strength, unambiguous words were paired with concordant weakly related context words and strongly related targets (e.g., taste–sweet–candy) that were similar in associative strength to discordant subordinate-related context words and dominant-related targets (e.g., river–bank–deposit) in the ambiguous condition. Context words and targets were reversed in a second experiment. In an unrelated (neutral) context, N400 responses were more positive than baseline (facilitated) in all ambiguous conditions except when subordinate targets were presented on left visual field–right hemisphere (LVF–RH) trials. Thus, in the absence of biasing context information, the hemispheres seem to be differentially affected by meaning frequency, with the left maintaining multiple meanings and the right selecting the dominant meaning. In the presence of discordant context information, N400 facilitation was absent in both visual fields, indicating that the contextually consistent meaning of the ambiguous word had been selected. In contrast, N400 facilitation occurred in all of the unambiguous conditions; however, the left hemisphere (LH) showed less facilitation for the weakly related target when a strongly related context was presented. These findings indicate that both hemispheres use context to guide meaning selection, but the LH is more likely to focus activation on a single, contextually relevant sense.

Section snippets

Homonymy vs. polysemy

The idea that the RH might activate more broadly and/or be less likely to select a meaning has been tested using both ambiguous homonyms and relatively unambiguous words, but there has been little discussion of the potential differences between these classes of items. Semantic distance in studies using unambiguous items is typically defined in terms of associative strength. This is consistent with the formulation of breadth in the coarse coding hypothesis (Beeman et al., 1994), which argues

Methodological issues

To date, the majority of studies investigating hemispheric asymmetries in the processing of word meanings have relied on reaction time and accuracy data from the lexical decision task, in which participants are asked to decide if a letter string is a word or nonword (for studies using a relatedness judgment task, see Atchley and Kwasny, 2003, Faust and Gernsbacher, 1996, Tompkins et al., 2000, Swaab et al., 1998). Some of the discrepancies among the studies cited above may be due to a lack of

The current study

The current study was designed to further investigate hemispheric asymmetries in meaning processing while taking into consideration the factors just described. In particular, two experiments jointly examine the processing of ambiguous and unambiguous words, using ERPs in conjunction with VF presentation and a relatedness judgment task. Although separate VF studies have examined hemispheric asymmetries in the processing of ambiguous and unambiguous words (e.g., Burgess and Simpson, 1988, Atchley

Recognition accuracy

Mean A′ was .78 (SE = .01)², indicating that participants attended to the context words and were able to discriminate between these words and distractors.

Relatedness judgment accuracy

Because a delayed response task was utilized, response time data were not analyzed. Accuracy data were subjected to a 2 (Visual Field) × 2 (Ambiguity) × 3 (Relatedness) analysis of variance (ANOVA). None of the interaction effects

Recognition accuracy

Mean A′ was .80 (SE = .01), indicating that participants attended to context words and were able to discriminate between these words and distractors.

Relatedness judgment accuracy

Accuracy data were subjected to a 2 (Visual Field) × 2 (Ambiguity) × 3 (Relatedness) analysis of variance (ANOVA). The main effects of VF [F(1,19) = 16.87, p < .01, MSE = .01], ambiguity [F(1,19) = 28.38, p < .001, MSE = .01], and relatedness [F(2,38) = 32.97, p < .001, MSE = .04] were significant. Similar to Experiment 1, accuracy for LVF–RH trials (M = .78, SE = .02) was

General discussion

The goal of this pair of studies was to examine the ability and tendency of the two cerebral hemispheres to (1) activate strong and weak associates and dominant and subordinate meanings of unambiguous and ambiguous words, respectively, and (2) use context information to shape meaning activation and selection. To that end, ERPs were recorded as participants judged whether or not a lateralized prime word was related in meaning to a centrally presented target word. Prime–target pairs were preceded

Participants

The final set of participants included 20 native English speakers (11 females) with no early (< age 5) exposure to a second language. All participants were right-handed as determined by the Edinburgh handedness inventory (Oldfield, 1971); the mean laterality quotient was 0.78 (range = 0.58 to 1.0), with 1.0 being strongly right-handed and − 1.0 being strongly left-handed. Nine participants reported having immediate family members who were left-handed. The mean age was 19.7 (range 18–25).

Materials

The stimuli

Acknowledgments

We thank Padmapriya Kandhadai for sharing her stimuli, and Sarah Baisley, Alex Harness, Komal Kenkare, Aubrey Lutz, Ed Rice, Emily Selen, and Haq Wajid for assistance with data collection. This research was supported by grant AG026308 to KDF and training grant MH019990 to AMM.

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Research ReportThe effects of context, meaning frequency, and associative strength on semantic selection: Distinct contributions from each cerebral hemisphere

Abstract

Section snippets

Homonymy vs. polysemy

Methodological issues

The current study

Recognition accuracy

Relatedness judgment accuracy

Recognition accuracy

Relatedness judgment accuracy

General discussion

Participants

Materials

Acknowledgments

Brain Cogn.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Lang.

Brain Lang.

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Brain Lang.

Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.

Cogn. Brain Res.

Cortex

J. Mem. Lang.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Lang.

Neuropsychologia

Cogn. Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Res.

Brain Lang.

J. Verbal Learn. Verbal Behav.

Brain Lang.

Trends Cogn. Sci.

Brain Res.

J. Mem. Lang.

J. Mem. Lang.

Brain Lang.

J. Neurolinguist.

Neuropsychologia

Trends Cogn. Sci.

Neuropsychologia

J. Mem. Lang.

Cogn. Psychol.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Lang.

J. Verbal Learn. Verbal Behav.

J. Verbal Learn. Verbal Behav.

Research Report
The effects of context, meaning frequency, and associative strength on semantic selection: Distinct contributions from each cerebral hemisphere