Degree Of Semantic Relatedness Research Articles

The impact of spatial and verbal working memory load on semantic relatedness judgements.

Studies using a relatedness judgement task have found differences between prime-target word pairs that vary in the degree of semantic relatedness. However, the influence of working memory load on semantic processing in this task and the role of the type of working memory task have not yet been investigated. The present study therefore investigated for the first time the effect of working memory load (low vs. high) and working memory type (verbal vs. spatial) on semantic relatedness judgements. Semantically strongly related (e.g., hip - KNEE), weakly related (e.g., muscle - KNEE) and unrelated (e.g., office - KNEE) Polish word pairs were presented in an experiment involving a dual working memory and semantic relatedness task. The data revealed that, relative to semantically unrelated word pairs, responses were faster for strongly related pairs but slower for weakly related pairs. Importantly, the verbal working memory task decreased facilitation for strongly related pairs and increased inhibition for weakly related pairs relative to the spatial working memory task. Furthermore, working memory load impacted only weakly related pairs in the verbal but not in the spatial working memory task. These results show that working memory type and load influence semantic relatedness judgements, but the direction and size of the impact depend on the strength of semantic relations.

Exhaustive semantic activation for reading ambiguous verbs in Chinese sentences

Studies of lexical ambiguity resolution in sentential contexts have not sufficiently considered the relatedness among an ambiguous word’s meanings as a predicting factor for semantic activation. To better understand the relation between lexical access and discourse processing and the effect of semantic relatedness on lexical ambiguity resolution, a cross-modal lexical priming experiment focusing on Mandarin ambiguous verbs of varying degrees of semantic relatedness was conducted. The results indicated that both meanings of an ambiguous verb were activated regardless of contextual biases and the degrees of semantic relatedness between the associated meanings. Taken together with previous research, the present study suggests that the meanings of an ambiguous word (i.e., homophonic homographs, which share both phonological and orthographic representations) are co-activated exhaustively if they are syntactically licensed by the context. These results thus support the exhaustive semantic activation model of lexical ambiguity resolution and the syntax-first theory of sentence processing.

Apples to Oranges

Inattentional blindness research suggests that individuals are not “blind” to unexpected events; instead, unexpected information is perceived and processed, and can reach attention, based on the information contained within these events. Factors that have been shown to influence further processing and subsequent attention include luminance (Most, Simons, Scholl, and Chabris, 2000) and color (Welk, Creager, and Gillan, 2014). The current research examined how semantic content of unexpected events influenced the processing of these events in an inattentional dual task. Participants performed a dynamic, computer-based visual task, in which unexpected events occasionally occurred; semantic relevance of these unexpected events was manipulated across trials. Results indicated that the degree of semantic relatedness of unexpected events did not significantly affect primary task performance or the detection of unexpected events. This suggests that semantic content is processed differently from perceptual content in a visual inattention task. The authors propose that the processing of semantic information in visual inattention tasks may be analogous to the processing that takes place in dichotic listening tasks; specifically that the processing of semantic content may be more dependent on the availability of attentional resources than perceptual content. Future directions are discussed.

Effects of animacy and noun-phrase relatedness on the processing of complex sentences

Previous work has suggested that syntactically complex object-extracted relative clauses are easier to process when the head noun phrase (NP1) is inanimate and the embedded noun phrase (NP2) is animate, as compared with the reverse animacy configuration, with differences in processing difficulty beginning as early as NP2 (e.g., The article that the senator . . . vs. The senator that the article . . .). Two eye-tracking-while-reading experiments were conducted to better understand the source of this effect. Experiment 1 showed that having an inanimate NP1 facilitated processing even when NP2 was held constant. Experiment 2 manipulated both animacy of NP1 and the degree of semantic relatedness between the critical NPs. When NP1 and NP2 were paired arbitrarily, the early animacy effect emerged at NP2. When NP1 and NP2 were semantically related, this effect disappeared, with effects of NP1 animacy emerging in later processing stages for both the related and arbitrary conditions. The results indicate that differences in the animacy of NP1 influence early processing of complex sentences only when the critical NPs share no meaningful relationship.

How time and semantic relatedness modulate whether and how unconscious information is represented in the brain

Event Abstract Back to Event How time and semantic relatedness modulate whether and how unconscious information is represented in the brain Charlotte Muscarella1, Bart Aben1, Karolien Smets2, Gethin Hughes3 and Eva Van Den Bussche1* 1 Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Psychology, Belgium 2 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium 3 University of Essex, United Kingdom Activity of brain areas can be modulated by several behavioral manipulations. In the current study we used a typical masked priming paradigm to investigate whether time (as defined by the Stimulus Onset Asynchrony or SOA) and the degree of semantic relatedness between prime and target modulate the neural activity triggered by unconscious logos of well-known brands. This allows us to further explore the supposed short-livedness of unconscious representations and the potential of these representations to trigger a wider-spread semantic network. In a lexical decision task participants decided whether targets were words (which could also be brand names) or non-words. These targets were preceded by unconscious prime logos of highly familiar brands. During this behavioral task EEG was recorded. To assess the influence of time, a short (300ms) and long (2500ms) SOA condition was created. To assess the influence of semantic relatedness, related prime-target pairs could either be strongly semantically related (e.g., logo of McDonald’s followed by the target word MCDONALD’S) or semantically related to a lesser degree (e.g., logo of McDonald’s followed by the target word HAMBURGER) Behavioral results indicated that, even after the long SOA, unconscious brand logos facilitated categorization of strongly related targets and, albeit to a lesser extent, more weakly related targets. A modulation of the N400, a negative ERP deflection over the centro-parietal scalp thought to reflect semantic processing, was observed. This N400 modulation was moderated both by SOA and the semantic relatedness between prime and target. This implies that unconscious brand logos can be semantically processed, that this processing is not necessarily short-lived, and that it is moderated by the degree of semantic closeness between prime and target. Keywords: Consciousness, priming, N400, Semantic Processing, brands, logos, unconscious processing Conference: Belgian Brain Council 2014 MODULATING THE BRAIN: FACTS, FICTION, FUTURE, Ghent, Belgium, 4 Oct - 4 Oct, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Basic Neuroscience Citation: Muscarella C, Aben B, Smets K, Hughes G and Van Den Bussche E (2014). How time and semantic relatedness modulate whether and how unconscious information is represented in the brain. Conference Abstract: Belgian Brain Council 2014 MODULATING THE BRAIN: FACTS, FICTION, FUTURE. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2014.214.00059 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 01 Jul 2014; Published Online: 13 Jul 2014. * Correspondence: Prof. Eva Van Den Bussche, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Psychology, Brussels, 1050, Belgium, eva.vandenbussche@kuleuven.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Charlotte Muscarella Bart Aben Karolien Smets Gethin Hughes Eva Van Den Bussche Google Charlotte Muscarella Bart Aben Karolien Smets Gethin Hughes Eva Van Den Bussche Google Scholar Charlotte Muscarella Bart Aben Karolien Smets Gethin Hughes Eva Van Den Bussche PubMed Charlotte Muscarella Bart Aben Karolien Smets Gethin Hughes Eva Van Den Bussche Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Brain Activation during Masked and Unmasked Semantic Priming: Commonalities and Differences

Using fMRI during a lexical decision task, we investigated the neural correlates of semantic priming under masked and unmasked prime presentation conditions in a repeated measurement design of the same group of 24 participants (14 women). The task was to discriminate between pseudowords and words. Masked and unmasked prime words differed in their degree of semantic relatedness with target stimuli. Neural correlates of priming were defined as significantly different neural activations upon semantically unrelated minus related trials. Left fusiform gyrus, left posterior inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral pre-SMA showed priming effects independent of the masking condition. By contrast, bilateral superior temporal gyri, superior parietal lobules, and the SMA proper demonstrated greater neural priming in the unmasked compared with the masked condition. The inverted contrast (masked priming minus unmasked priming) did not show significant differences even at lowered thresholds of significance. The conjoint effects of priming in the left fusiform gyrus suggest its involvement as a direct consequence of the neural organization of semantic memory. Activity in brain regions showing significantly more neural priming in the unmasked condition possibly reflected participants' evaluation of the prime-target relationship, presumably in the context of semantic matching. The present results therefore indicate that masked and unmasked semantic priming partially depend on dissociable mechanisms at the neural and most likely also at the functional level.

The co-occurrence of multisensory facilitation and cross-modal conflict in the human brain

Perceptual objects often comprise a visual and auditory signature that arrives simultaneously through distinct sensory channels, and cross-modal features are linked by virtue of being attributed to a specific object. Continued exposure to cross-modal events sets up expectations about what a given object most likely "sounds" like, and vice versa, thereby facilitating object detection and recognition. The binding of familiar auditory and visual signatures is referred to as semantic, multisensory integration. Whereas integration of semantically related cross-modal features is behaviorally advantageous, situations of sensory dominance of one modality at the expense of another impair performance. In the present study, magnetoencephalography recordings of semantically related cross-modal and unimodal stimuli captured the spatiotemporal patterns underlying multisensory processing at multiple stages. At early stages, 100 ms after stimulus onset, posterior parietal brain regions responded preferentially to cross-modal stimuli irrespective of task instructions or the degree of semantic relatedness between the auditory and visual components. As participants were required to classify cross-modal stimuli into semantic categories, activity in superior temporal and posterior cingulate cortices increased between 200 and 400 ms. As task instructions changed to incorporate cross-modal conflict, a process whereby auditory and visual components of cross-modal stimuli were compared to estimate their degree of congruence, multisensory processes were captured in parahippocampal, dorsomedial, and orbitofrontal cortices 100 and 400 ms after stimulus onset. Our results suggest that multisensory facilitation is associated with posterior parietal activity as early as 100 ms after stimulus onset. However, as participants are required to evaluate cross-modal stimuli based on their semantic category or their degree of congruence, multisensory processes extend in cingulate, temporal, and prefrontal cortices.

Word sense disambiguation using word ontology and concept distribution

This paper presents a method of word sense disambiguation that assigns a target word the sense that is most related to the senses of its neighbor words. We explore the use of measures of relatedness between word senses based on a novel hybrid approach. First, we investigate how to “literally” and “regularly” express a “concept”. We apply set algebra to Wordnet's synsets cooperating with Wordnet's word ontology. In this way we establish regular rules for constructing various representations (lexical notations) of a concept using Boolean operators and word forms in various synset(s) defined in Wordnet. Then we establish a formal mechanism for quantifying and estimating the semantic relatedness between concepts – we facilitate “concept distribution statistics” to determine the degree of semantic relatedness between two lexically expressed concepts. Human languages have words that can mean different things in different contexts, such words with multiple meanings are potentially “ambiguous”. The process of “deciding which of several meanings of a term is intended in a given context” is known as “Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD)”. The proposed method is not supervised, and does not require any manually created sense‐tagged training examples. The experimental results showed good performance on Semcor, a subset of the Brown corpus. We observe that measures of semantic relatedness are useful sources of information for word sense disambiguation.

On-line contextual influences during reading normal text: The role of nouns, verbs and adjectives

In a series of multiple-regression analyses conducted on the French part of the Dundee corpus, the time spent inspecting a target word in a given sentence was found to depend on its degree of semantic relatedness (as assessed in the LSA framework) to two content words belonging to a prior part of the sentence, and located at varying distances to the left of the target. However, only verb primes were found to elicit a significant influence when located in the more remote position. In addition, the influence elicited by remote primes was modulated as a function of their position in the constituent structure, relative to the position of the target. This pattern of results suggests that relatively abstract semantic relations, probably involved in processing operations developed at the sentence level, can directly influence eye-movement control mechanisms.

Effects of bilingualism, aging, and semantic relatedness on memory under divided attention.

We examined how encoding and retrieval processes were affected by manipulations of attention, and whether the degree of semantic relatedness between words in the memory and distracting task modulated these effects. We also considered age and bilingual status as mediating factors. Monolingual and bilingual younger and older adults studied a list of words from a single semantic category presented auditorily, and later free recalled them aloud. During either study or retrieval, participants concurrently performed a distracting task requiring size decisions to words from either the same or a different semantic category as the words in the memory task. The greatest disruptions of memory from divided attention (DA) were for encoding rather than retrieval. The effect of semantic relatedness was significant only for DA at encoding. Older age and bilingualism were associated with lower recall scores in all conditions, but these factors did not influence the magnitude of memory interference. The results suggest that encoding is more sensitive to semantic similarity in a distracting task than is retrieval. The role of attention at encoding and retrieval is discussed.

Word sense disambiguation using semantic relatedness measurement

All human languages have words that can mean different things in different contexts, such words with multiple meanings are potentially “ambiguous”. The process of “deciding which of several meanings of a term is intended in a given context” is known as “word sense disambiguation (WSD)”. This paper presents a method of WSD that assigns a target word the sense that is most related to the senses of its neighbor words. We explore the use of measures of relatedness between word senses based on a novel hybrid approach. First, we investigate how to “literally” and “regularly” express a “concept”. We apply set algebra to WordNet’s synsets cooperating with WordNet’s word ontology. In this way we establish regular rules for constructing various representations (lexical notations) of a concept using Boolean operators and word forms in various synset(s) defined in WordNet. Then we establish a formal mechanism for quantifying and estimating the semantic relatedness between concepts—we facilitate “concept distribution statistics” to determine the degree of semantic relatedness between two lexically expressed concepts. The experimental results showed good performance on Semcor, a subset of Brown corpus. We observe that measures of semantic relatedness are useful sources of information for WSD.

Morphological structure in the lexical representation of prefixed words: Evidence from speech errors

The present study aims to determine whether semantic relatedness plays a role in the production of speech errors involving derivational morphemes. A word order competition technique was used to induce morpheme and syllable exchange errors. Semantic relatedness was manipulated by contrasting error rates for prefixed words derived from free stems to those derived from bound roots. Significantly more morpheme errors were elicited in the two prefixed conditions compared with the control condition, replicating prior findings in French. Crucially, the two prefixed conditions elicited equal numbers of morpheme errors and there was no correlation between semantic relatedness and error rates. Taken together, the results strongly support a model of speech production in which derivational morphemes are represented at the form level and are not influenced by the degree of semantic relatedness within a morphological family.

Modulation of the Prospective and Retrospective Components of Memory for Intentions in Younger and Older Adults

We evaluate two hypotheses that have implications for the study of prospective memory. First, we examine whether the effect of age is greater on the prospective component or the retrospective component of memory for intentions; and second, we examine whether data-driven and conceptually driven processes differentially influence these two components. The influence of data-driven processes was varied by maintaining or changing the format of the prospective cue from study to test. The influence of conceptually driven processes was manipulated by varying the degree of semantic relatedness between the prospective cue and intention. The effect of age was greater on the prospective component than on the retrospective component. A change in study-test format had the greatest effect on the prospective component, whereas the degree of semantic relatedness had the greatest effect on the retrospective component. These findings suggest that memory for intentions is influenced by both data-driven and conceptually driven processes.

Transfer of Training as a Function of Semantic Relatedness in a Category Search Task

It has been demonstrated that highly trained, automatic processes can transfer across certain memory search tasks; the degree to which these processes may be exhibited in visual search tasks has not been established, however. We examined this issue by testing the transfer of highly trained, automatized components of a semantic category, visual search task to stimulus situations of varying degrees of relatedness. We developed an adaptive version of the multiple-frame detection task (Schneider and Shiffrin, 1977) in order to test performance at the limits of visual search capacity. During training, frame-time was the dependent variable and was determined by each participant's performance ability. Each received 6,090 trials on exemplars from a single semantic category. Transfer consisted of two sessions, 330 trials per session. Transfer performance reveals that participants became highly proficient at the task: by Session 3 accuracy stabilized at around 80%. Accuracy increased in direct relation to the degree of semantic relatedness of the transfer category to the previously trained category. Frame times decreased according to a normal power function. These data demonstrate the importance of consistent training for the development of “high performance” skills and effective transfer of these skills to other, related tasks. These results have important implications for training “high performance” skills in which visual search processes a crucial role.

Category size and semantic-memory retrieval

When a person judges whether a test word like COLLIE belongs to a specified semantic category like DOGS, reaction time varies directly with category size. This finding has implications for theories of human semantic memory. Collins and Quillian (1970) claimed that the apparent effect of category size is due to variations in the degree of semantic relatedness between test word and category. The present paper reports data demonstrating a category-size effect that is independent of semantic relatedness. A simple category-search model is considered that explains the category-size effect more directly than does the Collins and Quillian model. Some relevant methodological and theoretical problems are also discussed.