{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/120115"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/120115","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The parts of the whole story: The role of linguistic regularity, knowledge, and context in language processing","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-09-01 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-09-01 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mech, Emily Nicole"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Federmeier, Kara D.","Willits, Jon A.","Montag, Jessica L.","Benjamin, Aaron S.","Laszlo, Sarah"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-05","date_published":"2023-05","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:56Z","subjects":["Language Comprehension","Erps","Semantic Memory"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2023 Emily Mech"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120115","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Federmeier, Kara D.","Willits, Jon A.","Montag, Jessica L.","Benjamin, Aaron S.","Laszlo, Sarah"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Mech, Emily Nicole"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2023-05","2023-04-26"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Language Comprehension","Erps","Semantic Memory"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2023 Emily Mech"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120115"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-09-01 without embargo terms","The student, Emily Mech, accepted the attached license on 2023-04-26 at 13:30.","The student, Emily Mech, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2023-04-26 at 13:37.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2023-04-26 at 16:11.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19193 on 2023-09-01 at 16:55:37","The way in which concepts are represented, processed, and accessed in semantic memory to enable language comprehension has been of great theoretical interest and debate in cognitive science. Across six experiments, this dissertation weighs in on the nature of conceptual representations across four key dimensions – the degree to which conceptual representations are 1) amodal vs. modality-specific, 2) local vs. distributed, 3) innate vs. experience-dependent, and 4) stable vs. flexible. Chapter 2 used event-related potentials in conjunction with the visual half field paradigm to examine concreteness effects and concluded that multiple mechanisms, sensitive to modality, context, and processing effort, are responsible for conceptual processing of concrete and abstract information. Chapter 3 tested whether the cerebral hemispheres fundamentally differ in their representations of semantics and found that they do not differ as a function of local vs. distributed networks. Rather, the findings suggested that the cerebral hemispheres are capable of flexibly representing semantic information, depending on the task constraints. Across two experiments, Chapter 4 investigated the degree to which conceptual representations can be characterized by experience-dependent linguistic regularity, world knowledge, and flexible fit to context. In a single framework, these studies characterized the dynamics by which pragmatic informativeness, knowledge, and local context influenced language comprehension and suggested that experience-dependent, probabilistic information shapes both the degree and the timing with which knowledge influences comprehension. Collectively, this dissertation contributed to the breadth of knowledge by characterizing the distribution, time course, and dynamics of semantic representation and processing in service of language comprehension."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The parts of the whole story: The role of linguistic regularity, knowledge, and context in language processing"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Federmeier, Kara D.","Willits, Jon A.","Montag, Jessica L.","Benjamin, Aaron S.","Laszlo, Sarah"],"dc:creator":["Mech, Emily Nicole"],"dc:date":["2023-05","2023-04-26"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-09-01 without embargo terms","The student, Emily Mech, accepted the attached license on 2023-04-26 at 13:30.","The student, Emily Mech, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2023-04-26 at 13:37.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2023-04-26 at 16:11.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19193 on 2023-09-01 at 16:55:37","The way in which concepts are represented, processed, and accessed in semantic memory to enable language comprehension has been of great theoretical interest and debate in cognitive science. Across six experiments, this dissertation weighs in on the nature of conceptual representations across four key dimensions – the degree to which conceptual representations are 1) amodal vs. modality-specific, 2) local vs. distributed, 3) innate vs. experience-dependent, and 4) stable vs. flexible. Chapter 2 used event-related potentials in conjunction with the visual half field paradigm to examine concreteness effects and concluded that multiple mechanisms, sensitive to modality, context, and processing effort, are responsible for conceptual processing of concrete and abstract information. Chapter 3 tested whether the cerebral hemispheres fundamentally differ in their representations of semantics and found that they do not differ as a function of local vs. distributed networks. Rather, the findings suggested that the cerebral hemispheres are capable of flexibly representing semantic information, depending on the task constraints. Across two experiments, Chapter 4 investigated the degree to which conceptual representations can be characterized by experience-dependent linguistic regularity, world knowledge, and flexible fit to context. In a single framework, these studies characterized the dynamics by which pragmatic informativeness, knowledge, and local context influenced language comprehension and suggested that experience-dependent, probabilistic information shapes both the degree and the timing with which knowledge influences comprehension. Collectively, this dissertation contributed to the breadth of knowledge by characterizing the distribution, time course, and dynamics of semantic representation and processing in service of language comprehension."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120115"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2023 Emily Mech"],"dc:subject":["Language Comprehension","Erps","Semantic Memory"],"dc:title":["The parts of the whole story: The role of linguistic regularity, knowledge, and context in language processing"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:56Z"}