LangCog Seminar - Adam Parker

Fluent reading comprehension demands the rapid access and integration of word meanings. Recent research involving the word-meaning priming paradigm has shown that readers use recent experiences with ambiguous (e.g., boxer) and unambiguous words (e.g., bathtub) to guide future interpretations when these words are presented in isolation, even after substantial delays. However, word-meaning priming paradigms have almost always used artificial tasks to measure word-meaning availability and we do not therefore know how priming would support lexical processing when reading for comprehension. In this talk, I will first discuss two experiments showing that readers use recent experiences with ambiguity to support the processing of lexical ambiguity at a 1-minute and 30-minute delay. I will then discuss results from a third experiment where we investigated whether the same priming effects can be observed during reading for unambiguous words, where preliminary analyses indicate that readers also use experience to support the processing of word meanings for unambiguous words.