Phebe Cramer

A STUDY OF HOMOGRAPHS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses homographs. As an isolated unit, the identical spelling and pronunciation of the word provides no clue as to which meaning is intended. Although interpretation of the isolated unit can be influenced by the relative frequency with which the word is used to denote one rather than the other, meaning that only the surrounding context makes clear the intended meaning. Such words that have the same form but more than one meaning are called homonyms. If the two meanings of the word are represented by the same spelling, the word is a homograph. If the two meanings of the word are represented by the same pronunciation, the word is a homophone. A word can be both a homograph and a homophone. Some words are homographs but not homophones. Because homonyms are heavily dependent on context for their interpretation, they provide useful material for studying the modification of verbal meaning as a function of experimental variations in context.Publisher Summary This chapter discusses homographs. As an isolated unit, the identical spelling and pronunciation of the word provides no clue as to which meaning is intended. Although interpretation of the isolated unit can be influenced by the relative frequency with which the word is used to denote one rather than the other, meaning that only the surrounding context makes clear the intended meaning. Such words that have the same form but more than one meaning are called homonyms. If the two meanings of the word are represented by the same spelling, the word is a homograph. If the two meanings of the word are represented by the same pronunciation, the word is a homophone. A word can be both a homograph and a homophone. Some words are homographs but not homophones. Because homonyms are heavily dependent on context for their interpretation, they provide useful material for studying the modification of verbal meaning as a function of experimental variations in context.

The determinants of mediated priming: Time interval, semantic and associative relationships

The effect of priming over three time intervals and with five types of associative responses was investigated. Priming was found to increase the frequency of strong and weak nonantonym responses, but had no effect on strong antonyms and a negative effect on weak antonyms. Where effective, priming was found to be a transitory phenomenon, not lasting up to 30 sec. An additional finding suggested that estimates of associative strength based on normative data may not be appropriate when the interval between test stimuli is increased.

Magnitude and selectivity as independent factors in semantic generalization

Four experiments investigated the effect of modifying the arousal of implicit associative responses (IARs) during training on producing subsequent changes in the magnitude and selectivity of IAR-mediated generalization. Results indicated that training procedures which require the S to focus on the critical stimuli (CSs) increase correct CS recognition, but decrease the overall magnitude of mediated generalization. Selectivity of the generalization effect, on the other hand, was shown to be a function of time allowed for IAR occurrence during training. In all conditions, priming was effective in modifying specific IAR arousal. The results were replicated in a fifth experiment.

Response entropy as a function of the affective quality of the stimulus

Earlier experimental work has attempted to account for Word Association Test response faults as being due to response entropy, thereby discounting emotional disturbance as an explanatory variable. The present study demonstrates that response entropy is a function of the emotional connotation of the stimulus word, for both college and schizophrenic Ss, and that this affective variable is more important than stimulus familiarity in determining the response variability.

Associative strength as a determinant of mediated priming

Three experiments investigated the influence of number of priming words, as compared with the associative strength of the primers, in producing the priming effect. The results indicated that priming is a function both of the absolute and relative associative strength of the priming words, and that number of primers per se is not significant.

Associative satiation or selective activation

Two experiments, differing only in mode of response elicitation (oral, discrete, or written, continuous), were conducted to study the effects of verbal satiation. A 4 × 3 × 2 design was used: There were four conditions of satiation (self-, synonym-, and unrelatedsatiation, plus a nonverbal control), three levels of S-primary R strength (high, medium, and low), and two satiation intervals (4 and 60 sec). Neither experiment supported the associative satiation hypothesis. An alternative explanation of selective associative activation is suggested.