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Updated: Jan 26, 2026
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Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: June 25, 2019
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The complex interactions of context availability, polysemy, word frequency, and orthographic variables during lexical
Caitlin A Rice1,2, Natasha Tokowicz3,4,5,6, Scott H Fraundorf1,7
1Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Memory & Cognition
|April 20, 2019
Summary
Lexical processing is influenced by word features like context availability and polysemy. Lower frequency words and those with fewer senses are particularly affected, supporting the context availability hypothesis.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Lexical processing involves understanding word meaning and form.
- Factors influencing word recognition include context availability, polysemy, word frequency, and orthographic neighborhood.
- Previous research (Tokowicz & Kroll, 2007) highlighted disadvantages for words low in context availability and polysemy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interactive effects of context availability, polysemy, word frequency, and orthographic neighborhood size on lexical processing.
- To test the predictions of the context availability hypothesis (Schwanenflugel & Shoben, 1983).
- To provide a mechanistic explanation for observed interactions using the feedback activation account (Hino & Lupker, 1996).
Main Methods:
- Examined interactions between context availability, polysemy, word frequency, and orthographic neighborhood variables.
- Utilized experimental paradigms common in lexical decision tasks or word recognition studies (implied).
- Analyzed how these variables jointly influence word processing efficiency and accuracy.
Main Results:
- Context availability and polysemy interacted: words low in both were disadvantaged.
- Word frequency modulated the effects of polysemy and context availability, with stronger effects for lower-frequency words.
- Polysemy's effect was amplified by smaller orthographic neighborhoods and more high-frequency neighbors.
Conclusions:
- Findings support the context availability hypothesis.
- The feedback activation account provides a viable explanation, emphasizing semantic-to-orthographic feedback loops.
- Lexical access is a complex process influenced by the interplay of multiple word-level and contextual factors.
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