Deriving meaning from print: The role of sensorimotor information and context in semantic processing
Date
2019-01-07
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Abstract
The process by which meaning is derived from words has been described by a number of different theories. Most recently, hybrid theories have claimed that both lexical and perceptual information are involved in deriving meaning from words, and that the relative contributions of each are dependent on context (Zwaan, 2014). In Chapter 2, predictions derived from these theories were tested by examining semantic richness effects in a semantic decision task (SDT) across two conditions. EEG was recorded while participants categorized words rated high or low for body-object interaction (BOI), a sensorimotor semantic richness dimension that measures ease of bodily interaction with the word’s referent (Siakaluk, et al., 2008a). In one condition participants decided whether each word was an entity or non-entity and in the other condition participants decided whether each word was an action or non-action. The behavioural results from Experiment 1 replicated previous findings (Tousignant & Pexman, 2012): a BOI effect (faster responses for high BOI words than for low BOI words) was observed in the entity/non-entity condition only. The results from Experiment 2 showed a significant difference in mean amplitude and rectified area of the P2 component between high and low BOI words in the entity condition only. These results indicate that sensorimotor information was recruited differently in each condition, suggesting that the recruitment of semantic information is a dynamic process, dependent on task demands. Although the BOI dimension has proven useful for investigating the role of sensorimotor information in lexical-semantic processing it is a fairly coarse measure of sensorimotor experience with words’ referents. The research reported in Chapter 4 addressed this issue by collecting ratings for 621 words on seven semantic dimensions in order to investigate which attributes are most strongly related to BOI ratings and to lexical–semantic processing. The results showed that the motor dimensions of graspability, ease of pantomime, and number of actions were all related to BOI, and that these dimensions together explained more variance in semantic processing than did the BOI ratings alone. These findings support hybrid theories of semantic processing, and provide additional insights about the nature of sensorimotor semantic processing.
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EEG, Cognitive Psychology, Semantic processing
Citation
Doyle, A. W. (2019). Deriving from print: The role of sensorimotor information and context in semantic processing (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.