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Related Experiment Videos

Suppressing irrelevant information: knowledge activation or inhibition?

Danielle S McNamara1, Mark A McDaniel

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA. d.mcnamara@mail.psyc.memphis.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|February 26, 2004
PubMed
Summary
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Greater knowledge speeds up understanding of ambiguous words by activating relevant meanings. This challenges the idea that only inhibition is needed to suppress irrelevant information.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Reading Comprehension

Background:

  • Ambiguous words (homographs) have multiple meanings.
  • Understanding requires suppressing irrelevant meanings.
  • Prior research suggested inhibition as the primary mechanism.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of knowledge activation in suppressing irrelevant meanings of homographs.
  • To test a knowledge-based account of suppression.
  • To challenge inhibition as the sole suppression mechanism.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments were conducted.
  • Participants with varying levels of specific (baseball) and general knowledge were tested.
  • Reaction times were measured for suppressing irrelevant meanings of ambiguous words in context-specific sentences.

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Main Results:

  • Participants with greater baseball knowledge suppressed irrelevant meanings faster in baseball sentences.
  • Participants with greater general knowledge suppressed irrelevant meanings faster in general sentences.
  • Reading skill did not significantly impact suppression speed.

Conclusions:

  • Knowledge activation significantly influences the suppression of irrelevant word meanings.
  • A knowledge-based account of suppression is supported.
  • Inhibition alone does not fully explain the suppression of irrelevant information.