TY - JOUR
T1 - The relatedness-of-meaning effect for ambiguous words in lexical-decision tasks
T2 - When does relatedness matter?
AU - Hino, Yasushi
AU - Kusunose, Yuu
AU - Lupker, Stephen J.
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - Effects of the number of meanings (NOM) and the relatedness of those meanings (ROM) were examined for Japanese Katakana words using a lexical-decision task. In Experiment 1, only a NOM advantage was observed. In Experiment 2, the same Katakana words produced a ROM advantage when Kanji words and nonwords were added. Because the Kanji nonwords consisted of unrelated characters whereas the Kanji words consisted of related characters, participants may have used the relatedness of activated meanings as a cue in making lexical decisions in this experiment, artificially creating a ROM advantage for Katakana words. Consistent with this explanation, no ROM effect for Katakana words was observed in Experiment 3 when the Kanji nonwords consisted of characters with similar (i.e., related) meanings. These results pose a further challenge to the position that the speed of semantic coding is modulated by ROM for ambiguous words.
AB - Effects of the number of meanings (NOM) and the relatedness of those meanings (ROM) were examined for Japanese Katakana words using a lexical-decision task. In Experiment 1, only a NOM advantage was observed. In Experiment 2, the same Katakana words produced a ROM advantage when Kanji words and nonwords were added. Because the Kanji nonwords consisted of unrelated characters whereas the Kanji words consisted of related characters, participants may have used the relatedness of activated meanings as a cue in making lexical decisions in this experiment, artificially creating a ROM advantage for Katakana words. Consistent with this explanation, no ROM effect for Katakana words was observed in Experiment 3 when the Kanji nonwords consisted of characters with similar (i.e., related) meanings. These results pose a further challenge to the position that the speed of semantic coding is modulated by ROM for ambiguous words.
KW - A lexical decision task
KW - A number-of-meaning effect
KW - A relatedness-of-meaning effect
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78049286393&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/a0020475
DO - 10.1037/a0020475
M3 - Article
C2 - 20873915
AN - SCOPUS:78049286393
SN - 1196-1961
VL - 64
SP - 180
EP - 196
JO - Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology
JF - Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology
IS - 3
ER -