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Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
Context effects in word recognition: evidence for early interactive processing
Sara C Sereno1, Cameron C Brewer, Patrick J O'Donnell
1Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. ssereno@psy.gla.ac.uk
Psychological Science
|June 17, 2003
Summary
Prior context influences word meaning access, shown by brain activity (event-related potentials). Ambiguous words were processed like high-frequency words in neutral contexts and low-frequency words in biasing contexts.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Electrophysiology
Background:
- Lexical access, the process of retrieving word meaning, is influenced by word frequency and context.
- Previous research using reaction time paradigms suggests an interaction between context and word frequency.
- Electrophysiological measures, specifically event-related potentials (ERPs), offer high temporal resolution to investigate these processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the temporal dynamics of contextual influence on lexical access.
- To examine how prior context affects the processing of ambiguous words.
- To compare electrophysiological responses to ambiguous words with unambiguous high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) words.
Main Methods:
- Participants' electrophysiological responses (ERPs) were recorded.
- Ambiguous, HF, and LF words were presented in neutral and biasing contexts.
- N1 component (132–192 ms poststimulus) ERPs were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Word frequency effects were observed in the N1 component.
- A marginal effect of context for LF words supported the context-by-frequency interaction.
- In neutral contexts, ambiguous words were processed similarly to HF words; in biasing contexts, they were processed similarly to LF words.
Conclusions:
- Context exerts an early influence on lexical access, establishing temporal parameters for this effect.
- The findings support an interactive model of lexical access over a modular one.
- Electrophysiological data provide direct evidence for the timing of contextual integration in word meaning retrieval.
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