Yasushi Hino

Effects of Polysemy in Lexical Decision and Naming: An Alternative to Lexical Access Accounts

The effects of polysemy (number of meanings) and word frequency were examined in lexical decision and naming tasks. Polysemy effects were observed in both tasks. In the lexical decision task, high- and low-frequency words produced identical polysemy effects. In the naming task, however, polysemy interacted with frequency, with polysemy effects being limited to low-frequency words. When degraded stimuli were used in both tasks, the interaction appeared not only in naming but also in lexical decision. Because stimulus degradation also produced an effect of spelling-sound regularity in the lexical decision task, the different relationships between polysemy and frequency appear to be due to whether responding was based primarily on orthographic or phonological codes. As such, the effects of polysemy seem to be due to the nature of task-specific processes. An explanation in terms of M. S. Seidenberg and J. L. McClellands (1989) and D. C. Plaut and J. L. McClellands (1993) parallel distributed processing models is proposed. One of the most fundamental issues in reading research is how a words meaning is derived from the processing of a visual input. Chumbley and Balota (1984) suggested that essentially all major models of word recognition, such as Mortons (1969) logogen model, Beckers (1980) verification model, and Forsters (1976) lexical search model, assume at least two processes are involved. The first is the process of accessing the lexicon and the second is the process of meaning determination. The verification model and the lexical search model assume that lexical access involves a sequential matching process between information extracted from the visual stimulus and lexical representations, with representations for higher frequency words checked first. The logogen model assumes differential threshold values for the lexical representations depending

The impact of feedback semantics in visual word recognition: number-of-features effects in lexical decision and naming tasks.

The notion of feedback activation from semantics to both orthography and phonology has recently been used to explain a number of semantic effects in visual word recognition, including polysemy effects (Hino & Lupker, 1996; Pexman & Lupker, 1999) and synonym effects (Pecher, 2001). In the present research, we tested an account based on feedback activation by investigating a new semantic variable: number of features (NOF). Words with high NOF (e.g., LION) should activate richer semantic representations than do words with low NOF (e.g., LIME). As a result, the feedback activation from semantics to orthographic and phonological representations should be greater for high-NOF words, which should produce superior lexical decision task (LDT) and naming task performance. The predicted facilitory NOF effects were observed in both LDT and naming.

Ambiguity and Synonymy Effects in Lexical Decision, Naming, and Semantic Categorization Tasks: Interactions Between Orthography, Phonology, and Semantics

In this article, ambiguity and synonymy effects were examined in lexical decision, naming, and semantic categorization tasks. Whereas the typical ambiguity advantage was observed in lexical decision and naming, an ambiguity disadvantage was observed in semantic categorization. In addition, a synonymy effect (slower latencies for words with many synonyms than for words with few synonyms) was observed in lexical decision and naming but not in semantic categorization. These results suggest that (a) an ambiguity disadvantage arises only when a task requires semantic processing, (b) the ambiguity advantage and the synonymy disadvantage in lexical decision and naming are due to semantic feedback, and (c) these effects are determined by the nature of the feedback relationships from semantics to

The Effects of Word Frequency for Japanese Kana and Kanji Words in Naming and Lexical Decision: Can the Dual-Route Model Save the Lexical-Selection Account?

The effects of word frequency were examined for Japanese Kanji and Katakana words in 6 experiments. The sizes of frequency effects were comparable for Kanji and Katakana words in the standard lexical decision task. In the standard naming task, the frequency effect for Katakana words was significantly smaller than that for Kanji words. These results were consistent with the lexical-selection account of frequency effects offered by dual-route models. Contrary to this account, however, frequency effects were smaller for Katakana words than for Kanji words in go/no-go naming tasks, in which participants were asked to name a stimulus aloud only if it was a word. This Frequency X Script Type interaction was not the result of using a go/no-go task because the interaction disappeared in the go/no-go lexical decision task. These results pose a strong challenge for the lexical-selection account of frequency effects offered by dual-route models.

Orthographic neighborhood effects in perceptual identification and semantic categorization tasks: A test of the multiple read-out model

How should a word’s orthographic neighborhood affect perceptual identification and semantic categorization, both of which require a word to be uniquely identified? According to the multiple read-out model (Grainger & Jacobs, 1996), inhibitory neighborhood frequency effects should be observed in these types of tasks, and facilitatory neighborhood size effects should not be. In Experiments 1 and 2 (perceptual identification), these effects were examined as a function of stimulus visibility (i.e., high vs. low visibility) to provide as full a test as possible of the model’s predictions. In the high-visibility conditions, words with large neighborhoods were reported less accurately than words with small neighborhoods, but there was no effect of neighborhood frequency (i.e., whether the word had a higher frequency neighbor). In the low-visibility conditions, low-frequency words with large neighborhoods and low-frequency words with higher frequency neighbors showed superior identification performance. In the semantic categorization task (Experiment 3), words with large neighborhoods were responded to more rapidly than words with small neighborhoods, but there was no effect of neighbor-hood frequency. These results are inconsistent with two of the basic premises of the multiple read-out model—namely, that facilitatory neighborhood size effects are due to a variable response criterion (the Σ criterion), rather than to lexical selection processes, and that the lexical selection processes themselves produce an inhibitory neighborhood frequency effect (via the M criterion). Instead, the present results, in conjunction with previous findings, suggest that large neighborhoods (and perhaps higher frequency neighbors) do aid lexical selection.

Semantic Ambiguity and the Process of Generating Meaning From Print

An ambiguity disadvantage (slower responses for ambiguous words, e.g., bank, than for unambiguous words) has been reported in semantic tasks (L. R. Gottlob, S. D. Goldinger, G. O. Stone, & G. C. Van Orden, 1999; Y. Hino, S. J. Lupker, & P. M. Pexman, 2002; C. D. Piercey & S. Joordens, 2000) and has been attributed to the meaning activation process. The authors tested an alternative explanation; The ambiguity disadvantage arises from the decision-making process in semantic tasks. The authors examined effects of ambiguity on unrelated trials in a relatedness decision task, because these trials are free from response competition created by ambiguous words on related trials. Results showed no ambiguity effect on unrelated trials (Experiments 2, 3c, and 5c) and an ambiguity disadvantage on related trials (Experiments 3a, 3b, 5a, and 5b).

Cross-script phonological priming for Japanese-English bilinguals: Evidence for integrated phonological representations

Previous masked phonological priming studies with bilinguals whose languages are written in the same script (e.g., Dutch-French bilinguals) strongly suggest that phonological representations for the two languages are integrated, based on the fact that phonological activation created by reading a word in one language facilitates word identification in the other language. The present research examined whether the same is true for different-script bilinguals (Japanese-English bilinguals). In this study, participants made lexical decisions to English targets (e.g., GUIDE) that were primed by three types of masked Japanese primes: cognate translation equivalents (e.g., , /gaido/, guide), phonologically similar but conceptually unrelated words (e.g., , /saido/, side), and phonologically and conceptually unrelated words (e.g., , /koRru/, call). There were significant priming effects for cognate translation primes (94 ms) and phonologically similar primes (30 ms). Whereas the cognate translation priming effect was modulated by target frequency and L2 proficiency, the phonological priming effect was not. Our results suggest that phonological representations for different languages are integrated even if the languages in question use different scripts. The role of phonological activation in bilingual word recognition is discussed.

Masked repetition priming and word frequency effects across different types of Japanese scripts: An examination of the lexical activation account

In these experiments, cross-script masked repetition priming and word frequency effects were examined for Japanese words and nonwords as a function of script familiarity and the nature of the task (lexical decision or naming). In the lexical decision task, masked repetition priming effects were observed only for word targets and those effects were larger for targets presented in an orthographically unfamiliar script than for targets presented in an orthographically familiar script. In contrast, in the naming task, masked repetition priming effects were observed for both word and nonword targets and, for word targets, the repetition priming effects were similar regardless of the orthographic familiarity of the targets. In addition, large word frequency effects were observed when the targets were presented in a familiar script, but the effects were diminished or eliminated when the targets were presented in an unfamiliar script in both tasks. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of the possible loci of the priming effects in the two tasks.

The Processing Advantage and Disadvantage for Homophones in Lexical Decision Tasks.

Studies using the lexical decision task with English stimuli have demonstrated that homophones are responded to more slowly than nonhomophonic controls. In contrast, several studies using Chinese stimuli have shown that homophones are responded to more rapidly than nonhomophonic controls. In an attempt to better understand the impact of homophony, we investigated homophone effects for Japanese kanji words in a lexical decision task. The results indicated that, whereas a processing disadvantage emerged for homophones when they have only a single homophonic mate (as in the English experiments), a processing advantage occurred for homophones when they have multiple homophonic mates (as in the Chinese experiments). On the basis of these results, we discuss the nature of the processes that may be responsible for producing the processing advantages and disadvantages for homophones.

The Relatedness-of-Meaning Effect for Ambiguous Words in Lexical-Decision Tasks: When Does Relatedness Matter?

Effects of the number of meanings (NOM) and the relatedness of those meanings (ROM) were examined for Japanese Katakana words using a lexical-decision task. In Experiment 1, only a NOM advantage was observed. In Experiment 2, the same Katakana words produced a ROM advantage when Kanji words and nonwords were added. Because the Kanji nonwords consisted of unrelated characters whereas the Kanji words consisted of related characters, participants may have used the relatedness of activated meanings as a cue in making lexical decisions in this experiment, artificially creating a ROM advantage for Katakana words. Consistent with this explanation, no ROM effect for Katakana words was observed in Experiment 3 when the Kanji nonwords consisted of characters with similar (i.e., related) meanings. These results pose a further challenge to the position that the speed of semantic coding is modulated by ROM for ambiguous words.