On the disambiguation of meaning: the effects of perceptual focus and cognitive load

<p>Most research supports a non-selective (or exhaustive) account of activation whereby multiple meanings of a word are initially activated (as discussed in Degani & Tokowicz, 2009). But what happens to the non-selected meaning of an ambigious word (e.g., bark) and how is the decision made to select one meaning over the other? A great deal research by Gernsbacher and colleagues suggests that the non-selected meaning is "discarded" via active suppression, but a competing activation-only account is also proposed by Gorfein's research group. The present dissertation examines meaning-selection in ambiguous words using a word to elicit meaning context (rather than a sentence). Additionally, manipulations of perceptual focus (Experiment 2) and cognitive load (Experiment 3) were employed to examine these processes. Results agree with Gernsbacher's Structure-Building Framework (a suppression account) of meaning selection. An updated conceptualization of ambiguity resolution is proposed.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Kennette, Lynne

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lee H. Wurm

• ambiguity, cognitive load, perceptual focus, suppression
• Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/513

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wayne.edu:oa_dissertations-1512