title: Lexical processing of ambiguous words: dominance or associative strength?
abstract: Four experiments examined the role of meaning frequency (dominance) and associative strength (measured by associative norms) in the processing of ambiguous words in isolation. Participants made lexical decisions to targets words that were associates of the more frequent (dominant) or less frequent (subordinate) meaning of a homograph prime. The first two experiments investigated the role of associative strength at long SOAs (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) (750 ms.), showing that meaning is facilitated by the targets' associative strength and not by their dominance. The last two experiments traced the role associative strength at short SOAs (250 ms), showing that the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect in the semantic priming. The conclusions are: on the one hand, semantic priming for homographs is due to associative strength manipulations at long SOAs. On the other hand, the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect when automatic processes (short SOAs) are engaged for homographs.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad de Almería, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain. fnievas@ual.es
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nievas
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Justicia
authors.forename: José J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Cañas
authors.forename: M Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Bajo
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001332:Automatism; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D011340:Problem Solving; D011932:Reading; D012718:Set, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning