University of Alberta norms of relative meaning frequency for 566 homographs

For many models of lexical ambiguity resolution, relative frequency of the different meanings of homographs (words with more than one meaning) is crucial. Although several homograph association norms have been published in the past, none has involved a large number of subjects responding to a large number of homographs, and most homograph norming studies are now at least a decade old. In Experiment l, associations to 566 homographs were collected from an average of 192 subjects per homograph. Frequency of occurrence for the three most common meanings is reported, along with the corresponding associates, and a measure of the overall ambiguity of each homograph. Homographs whose meanings differed in part of speech were more ambiguous overall than homographs whose different meanings belonged to a single grammatical class. Homographs whose pronunciation depended on meaning (heterophones) were no more ambiguous than nonheterophones, and word frequency was unrelated to overall ambiguity. Estimates of homograph balance across different norming studies were compared, and homographs with two meanings of approximately equal relative meaning frequency (balanced homographs) and homographs with one clearly dominant meaning (polarized homographs) were identified. In Experiment 2, reliability of meaning categorizations was measured for a subset of the homographs in the first experiment. Meaning categorizations were shown to be highly reliable across raters.     

Meaning dominance norms for 120 homographs

Over the past two decades, homographs have been used in psychological experiments aimed at testing a variety of theoretical issues concerning memory and language. Often, such research requires prior knowledge of the dominance relations among various meanings of the homographs. Previously available homograph meaning norms are limited because they are now more than 10 years old, and they have typically reported only the two most dominant meanings even though many homographs have three or more common meanings. This paper presents normative data on 120 homographs from a relatively large, heterogeneous sample of subjects (N = 100). Meaning dominance was assessed by having subjects write the first definition that came to mind for each homograph. Definition responses were grouped by similarity, and the resulting meaning categories were verified against dictionary meaning classifications. The number of distinct meanings varied from two to six for the homographs investigated, and frequency of response is reported for all definition categories.     

The University of South Florida homograph norms

Norms were collected to determine the relative dominance of different meanings of homo-graphic words. Forty-six subjects wrote down the first word that came to mind for each of 320 homographs. Each homograph, the number of times each meaning was given, and the specific associates are made available. In addition, correlations with other norms are presented.     

Context and homograph meaning resolution.

We describe an activation-based model of word recognition and apply it to the process of resolving the meaning of homographs presented in context. The interpretation of homographs was assessed by asking participants to decide whether a target word was related to the meaning of a sentence containing a homograph. These relatedness decisions varied systematically with the relative frequency of the homograph meanings, delay, and the nature of the sentence context. In the model, it was assumed that orthographic and contextual information combine additively to determine the activation of word meanings, and that the probability of a "related" response is determined by the activation level of the related meaning. The model accurately accounts for all observed effects, as well as their interaction. We conclude that the core process of lexical ambiguity resolution may be quite simple.     

The processing of homophonic homographs during reading: Evidence from eye movement studies

Research on the processing of homophonic homographs during reading is reviewed. The primary dependent variable considered was fixation time on target homographs. Both the characteristics of the homograph (whether there are two equally likely meanings or one dominant meaning) and the characteristics of the preceding context (whether it is neutral or contains disambiguating information) were varied. When the preceding context was neutral, readers fixated longer on balanced homographs (homographs having two equally likely meanings) than on control words matched on frequency and length, but didn't look any longer at biased homographs (homographs having a highly dominant meaning) than matched control words. However, when the preceding context disambiguated toward the subordinate meaning, readers fixated longer on a biased homograph than a matched control word (the subordinate bias effect). Attempts to eliminate the subordinate bias effect are described and the implications of our research for models of lexical ambiguity resolution are discussed.Preparation of this paper was supported by grant DBS-9121375 from the National Science Foundation. We wish to thank our colleagues Sara Sereno and Chuck Clifton for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

Homograph norms: An alternative approach to determining meaning dominance

In the present study, we provide a new technique for the collection of homograph norms that reduces subjectivity in the determination of meaning dominance by allowing participants rather than experimenters to indicate to which meaning or meanings the associates were related. To evaluate the effectiveness of this new technique, a subset of homograph norms were used in three separate experiments, demonstrating that (1) when presented with additional meaning categories, participants classified the associates consistently into the primary and secondary meaning categories; (2) overall, the participants were most familiar with primary meanings, followed by secondary, tertiary, and quaternary meanings; and (3) the meaning categories provided to the participants during norms collection were appropriate, since the two meanings provided for each homograph by the participants were consistent with the original data. Finally, in a fourth experiment, we compared the results of this new technique with a parallel set collected in Australia. The high degree of similarity in the results provides validity for this procedure. The homograph norms discussed in this article may be downloaded from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Hemispheric asymmetries in meaning selection: Evidence from the disambiguation of homophonic vs. heterophonic homographs

Research investigating hemispheric asymmetries in meaning selection using homophonic homographs (e.g., bank), suggests that the left hemisphere (LH) quickly selects contextually relevant meanings, whereas the right hemisphere (RH) maintains a broader spectrum of meanings including those that are contextually irrelevant (e.g., Faust & Chiarello, 1998). The present study investigated cerebral asymmetries in maintaining the multiple meanings of two types of Hebrew homographs: homophonic homographs and heterophonic homographs (e.g., tear). Participants read homographs preceded by a biasing, or a non-biasing sentential context, and performed a lexical decision task on targets presented laterally, 1000 ms after the onset of the sentence-final ambiguous prime. Targets were related to either the dominant or the subordinate meaning of the preceding homograph, or unrelated to it. When targets were presented in the LVF/RH, dominant and subordinate meanings, of both types of homographs, were retained only when they were supported by context. In a non-biasing context, only dominant meanings of homophonic homographs were retained. Alternatively, when targets were presented in the RVF/LH, priming effects for homophonic homographs were only evident when meanings were supported by both context and frequency (i.e., when context favored the dominant meaning). In contrast, heterophonic homographs resulted in activation of dominant meanings, in all contexts, and activation of subordinate meanings, only in subordinate-biasing contexts. The results challenge the view that a broader spectrum of meanings is maintained in the right than in the left hemisphere and suggest that hemispheric differences in the time course of meaning selection (or decay) may be modulated by phonology.     

Hemispheric asymmetries in meaning selection: Evidence from the disambiguation of homophonic vs. heterophonic homographs

Research investigating hemispheric asymmetries in meaning selection using homophonic homographs (e.g., bank), suggests that the left hemisphere (LH) quickly selects contextually relevant meanings, whereas the right hemisphere (RH) maintains a broader spectrum of meanings including those that are contextually irrelevant (e.g., Faust & Chiarello, 1998). The present study investigated cerebral asymmetries in maintaining the multiple meanings of two types of Hebrew homographs: homophonic homographs and heterophonic homographs (e.g., tear). Participants read homographs preceded by a biasing, or a non-biasing sentential context, and performed a lexical decision task on targets presented laterally, 1000 ms after the onset of the sentence-final ambiguous prime. Targets were related to either the dominant or the subordinate meaning of the preceding homograph, or unrelated to it. When targets were presented in the LVF/RH, dominant and subordinate meanings, of both types of homographs, were retained only when they were supported by context. In a non-biasing context, only dominant meanings of homophonic homographs were retained. Alternatively, when targets were presented in the RVF/LH, priming effects for homophonic homographs were only evident when meanings were supported by both context and frequency (i.e., when context favored the dominant meaning). In contrast, heterophonic homographs resulted in activation of dominant meanings, in all contexts, and activation of subordinate meanings, only in subordinate-biasing contexts. The results challenge the view that a broader spectrum of meanings is maintained in the right than in the left hemisphere and suggest that hemispheric differences in the time course of meaning selection (or decay) may be modulated by phonology.     

Sentence context effects on lexically ambiguous words: Evidence for a postaccess inhibition process

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the process involved in selecting the contextually appropriate meaning of a homograph. Both experiments employed a grammaticality decision task. In Experiment 1, the primary (more frequent) and secondary (less frequent) meanings of homographs were used as the target items requiring a “yes” decision. The results indicated that the effect of relative frequency of these meanings of homographs was reduced when the target word was preceded either by a semantically congruous or anomalous sentence context relative to when it was preceded by the grammatical morpheme “the” or “to.” Experiment 2 indicated that “no” decisions were consistently slower for syntactically unambiguous, but semantically ambiguous words (e.g., ORGAN, FEET) than for syntactically and semantically unambiguous words (e.g., CENT, LEND), irrespective of the type of preceding context. The results, taken as a whole, are best interpreted within the postaccess inhibition model of sentence-context effects suggested by Forster (1981).     

Norms as a tool for the study of homography

Four continuous word associations to each of 107 homographs were obtained from 50 male and 50 female undergraduates. Included in the word sample were 12 nonhomophonic homographs (heterophones). The data were analyzed to derive two indexes. A dominance score was defined on the basis of the frequency that a particular meaning was associated to each homograph. A stability score was a measure of the likelihood that the continuous associations were consistent with the first associate. Norms were provided for these measures. Comparison of heterophones to homophones indicates that the former are significantly more stable.     

Interpretive cues and ambiguity in generalized anxiety disorder

The current study investigated whether generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) individuals rely on antecedent information to interpret ambiguity and whether reliance on such preceding cues persists in the absence of potential threat. Twenty-six GAD and 23 nonanxious control college students performed a lexical decision task, using homographs (i.e. words with multiple meanings) as ambiguous primes. In half the trials, a homograph prime that possessed both threat-related, as well as neutral meanings was followed by a target word related to one of these two meanings. In addition, each ambiguous prime was immediately preceded by a series of four antecedent words that were either: (a) associated with the threatening meaning of the prime; (b) associated with the neutral meaning of the prime; or (c) unrelated to either meaning of the homograph, as well as the target. Homographs for which both meanings were neutral in valence comprised the other half of the trials. Effect size statistics suggest that GAD participants utilized the antecedent words to interpret the homograph primes with threat-related meanings, unlike their nonanxious counterparts (p<0.06). When both meanings of the homograph prime were neutral in valence, the GAD group appeared deficient in the use of preceding information to interpret the ambiguous prime.     

The selection of homograph meaning: Word association when context changes

In a study of lexical ambiguity processing, responses to homographs were examined in a word association task. The context of repeated exposures of a homograph was manipulated by requiring a response to a word related to a meaning of the homograph on the trial prior to homograph presentation. A change of that relationship reduced the effectiveness of the contextual item as a prime on the second occurrence of the homograph. In response to a third unprimed occurrence of the homograph, associations were consistent with a conclusion that when semantic contexts are opposed, a "primacy effect" is obtained. The overall effects in the studies reported are seen as consistent with the theoretical view of Simpson and Kang (1994) that processing and responding to one meaning of a homograph result in the inhibition of alternative meanings. A mechanism to account for that inhibition is proposed.     

Resolving ambiguity: the effect of experience on interpretation of ambiguous events in generalized social phobia

The authors examined the effect of learning on multiple encounters with sources of social ambiguity in individuals with generalized social phobia (GSP). The authors modified G. B. Simpson and H. Kang's (1994) paradigm and presented prime-target word pairs to individuals with GSP and nonanxious controls (NACs) to prime threat and nonthreat meanings of homographs and examine the effect of this priming on later encounters with that homograph. Consistent with previous research, NACs showed faster response latencies naming a target primed by a homograph with the same meaning activated in two successive trials than naming the same target primed by an unrelated word. Furthermore, NACs showed slower response latencies naming a target when a different meaning of the homograph prime was activated in successive trials than naming a target primed by an unrelated word. GSP participants did not show this pattern in learning a nonthreat meaning of a homograph. These results support the hypothesis that a faulty learning mechanism may be involved in social anxiety.     

Lexical processing of ambiguous words: dominance or associative strength?

Four experiments examined the role of meaning frequency (dominance) and associative strength (measured by associative norms) in the processing of ambiguous words in isolation. Participants made lexical decisions to targets words that were associates of the more frequent (dominant) or less frequent (subordinate) meaning of a homograph prime. The first two experiments investigated the role of associative strength at long SOAs (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) (750 ms.), showing that meaning is facilitated by the targets' associative strength and not by their dominance. The last two experiments traced the role associative strength at short SOAs (250 ms), showing that the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect in the semantic priming. The conclusions are: on the one hand, semantic priming for homographs is due to associative strength manipulations at long SOAs. On the other hand, the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect when automatic processes (short SOAs) are engaged for homographs.     

Effects of training on interpretation of emotional ambiguity

In four experiments we investigated whether interpretative biases found in anxious patients and high-trait anxious individuals can be induced by training in unselected volunteers. Repeated exposure to emotionally valenced (threatening) meanings of homographs during training was followed by relatively faster resolution of word fragments and faster lexical decisions for targets that matched the trained valence. Similar effects were found whether participants generated the meanings themselves, or verified a particular meaning of the homograph. Finally, comparison with a baseline condition confirmed that systematic exposure to threatening-but not non-threatening-resolutions of ambiguous words led to generally faster access times for congruent meanings, thus resembling the interpretative bias seen in anxiety states.     

Using puns to study contextual influences on lexical ambiguity resolution: Evidence from eye movements

Participants’ eye movements were monitored while they read sentences containing biased homographs in either a single-meaning context condition that instantiated the subordinate meaning of the homograph without ruling out the dominant meaning (e.g., “The man with a toothache had a crown made by the best dentist in town”) or a dual-meaning pun context condition that supported both the subordinate and dominant meanings (e.g., “The king with a toothache had a crown made by the best dentist in town”). In both of these conditions, the homographs were followed by disambiguating material that supported the subordinate meaning and ruled out the dominant meaning. Fixation times on the homograph were longer in the single-meaning condition than in the dual-meaning condition, whereas the reverse pattern was demonstrated for fixation times on the disambiguating region; these effects were observed as early as first-fixation duration. The findings strongly support the reordered access model of lexical ambiguity resolution.     

Remindings influence the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli

Remindings—stimulus-guided retrievals of prior events—may help us interpret ambiguous events by linking the current situation to relevant prior experiences. Evidence suggests that remindings play an important role in interpreting complex ambiguous stimuli (Ross & Bradshaw Memory & Cognition, 22, 591–605, 1994); here, we evaluate whether remindings will influence word interpretation and memory in a new paradigm. Learners studied words on distinct visual backgrounds and generated a sentence for each word. Homographs were preceded by a biasing cue on the same background three items earlier, preceded by a biasing cue on a different background three items earlier, or followed by a biasing cue on the same background three items later. When biasing cues preceded the homographs on the same backgrounds as the homographs, the meanings of the homographs in learner-generated sentences were consistent with the biasing cues more often than in the other two conditions. These results show that remindings can influence word interpretation. In addition, later memory for the homographs and cues was greater when the meaning of the homograph in the sentence was consistent with the earlier biasing cue, suggesting that remindings enhanced mnemonic performance. Remindings play an important role in how we interpret ambiguous stimuli and enhance memory for the involved material.     

Hemispheric sensitivities to lexical and contextual information: evidence from lexical ambiguity resolution

The present study examined the manner in which both hemispheres utilize prior semantic context and relative meaning frequency during the processing of homographs. Participants read sentences biased toward the dominant or the subordinate meaning of their final homograph, or unbiased neutral sentences, and performed a lexical decision task on lateralized targets presented 250ms after the onset of the sentence-final ambiguous prime. Targets were either related to the dominant or the subordinate meaning of the preceding homograph, or unrelated to it. Performance asymmetry was found in the absence of a biasing context: dominant-related targets were exclusively facilitated in the RVF/LH, whereas both dominant- and subordinate-related targets were facilitated in the LVF/RH. Performance symmetry was found in the presence of a biasing context: dominant-related targets were exclusively activated in dominant-biasing contexts, whereas both dominant- and subordinate-related targets were facilitated in subordinate-biasing contexts. The implications of the results for both general and hemispheric models of word processing are discussed.     

Semantic asymmetries are modulated by phonological asymmetries: Evidence from the disambiguation of homophonic versus heterophonic homographs

The present study investigated cerebral asymmetries in accessing multiple meanings of two types of homographs: homophonic homographs (e.g., bank) and heterophonic homographs (e.g., tear). Participants read homographs preceded by either a biasing or a non-biasing sentential context and performed a lexical decision on lateralized targets presented 150 ms after onset of the sentence-final ambiguous prime. Targets were either related to the dominant or the subordinate meaning of the preceding homograph or were unrelated to it. In the case of homophonic homographs – our results converge with previous findings: both activation and selection processes are faster in the LH than in the RH. Importantly, however, in the case of heterophonic homographs – opposite asymmetries were found. These results suggest that semantic asymmetries are modulated by phonology. They are discussed in the context of a model of functional architecture of reading in the two hemispheres in which orthography, phonology and semantics are fully interconnected in the LH, whereas in the RH, orthography and phonology are not directly connected, such that phonological processes are mediated by semantics.