Abstract
Lexical ambiguity resolution was examined in children aged 7 to 10 years and adults. In Experiment 1, participants heard sentences supporting one (or neither) meaning of a balanced ambiguous word in a cross-modal naming paradigm. Naming latencies for context-congruent versus context-incongruent targets and judgements of the relatedness of targets to the sentence served as indices of appropriate context use. While younger children were faster to respond to related targets regardless of the sentence context, older children and adults showed priming only for context-appropriate targets. In Experiment 2, only a single-word context preceded the homophone, and in contrast to Experiment 1, all groups showed contextual sensitivity. Individual working-memory span and inhibition ability were also measured in Experiment 2, and more mature executive function abilities were associated with greater contextual sensitivity. These findings support a developmental model whereby sentential context use for lexical ambiguity resolution increases with age, cognitive processing capacity, and reading skill.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 160-193 |
| Number of pages | 34 |
| Journal | Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2010 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Physiology
- Physiology (medical)
- Psychology(all)
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Cite this
Children's use of language context in lexical ambiguity resolution. / Khanna, Maya M.; Boland, Julie E.
In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Vol. 63, No. 1, 01.2010, p. 160-193.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Children's use of language context in lexical ambiguity resolution
AU - Khanna, Maya M.
AU - Boland, Julie E.
PY - 2010/1
Y1 - 2010/1
N2 - Lexical ambiguity resolution was examined in children aged 7 to 10 years and adults. In Experiment 1, participants heard sentences supporting one (or neither) meaning of a balanced ambiguous word in a cross-modal naming paradigm. Naming latencies for context-congruent versus context-incongruent targets and judgements of the relatedness of targets to the sentence served as indices of appropriate context use. While younger children were faster to respond to related targets regardless of the sentence context, older children and adults showed priming only for context-appropriate targets. In Experiment 2, only a single-word context preceded the homophone, and in contrast to Experiment 1, all groups showed contextual sensitivity. Individual working-memory span and inhibition ability were also measured in Experiment 2, and more mature executive function abilities were associated with greater contextual sensitivity. These findings support a developmental model whereby sentential context use for lexical ambiguity resolution increases with age, cognitive processing capacity, and reading skill.
AB - Lexical ambiguity resolution was examined in children aged 7 to 10 years and adults. In Experiment 1, participants heard sentences supporting one (or neither) meaning of a balanced ambiguous word in a cross-modal naming paradigm. Naming latencies for context-congruent versus context-incongruent targets and judgements of the relatedness of targets to the sentence served as indices of appropriate context use. While younger children were faster to respond to related targets regardless of the sentence context, older children and adults showed priming only for context-appropriate targets. In Experiment 2, only a single-word context preceded the homophone, and in contrast to Experiment 1, all groups showed contextual sensitivity. Individual working-memory span and inhibition ability were also measured in Experiment 2, and more mature executive function abilities were associated with greater contextual sensitivity. These findings support a developmental model whereby sentential context use for lexical ambiguity resolution increases with age, cognitive processing capacity, and reading skill.
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U2 - 10.1080/17470210902866664
DO - 10.1080/17470210902866664
M3 - Article
C2 - 19424907
AN - SCOPUS:77649125887
VL - 63
SP - 160
EP - 193
JO - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
JF - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
SN - 1747-0218
IS - 1
ER -