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In this article we address the question of whether semantic ambiguity resolution involves the central inhibition of the non-selected meaning of a homograph. Most previous studies on this topic have either not clearly required semantic selection, or have induced this disambiguation by manipulating the context. These studies have not observed clear inhibitory effects on the non-selected meaning of the type studied in negative priming. We suggest that this kind of central inhibition may depend on task demands, and will be more easily observed in tasks where meaning selection is clearly required and is not made easier by cueing or context. In this study, participants had to perform a semantic judgment task in the prime display. Semantic priming from both the selected and the non-selected meaning of homographs was measured by showing facilitation for the selected meaning and inhibitory effects of the non-selected meaning. Participants with slow but accurate performance during the task were mainly responsible for this semantic negative priming effect, reflecting the role of inhibition on task-oriented control. The 'negative priming' effect is discussed in relation to current theories of attentional selection.

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Some studies with children have shown that there is no semantic priming at short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in lexical decision and naming tasks for homographs. The predictions of spreading activation theories might explain this missing effect. There may be differences in children's and adults' memory structures. We have explored this hypothesis. The development of memory structure representations for homographs was measured by a Pathfinder algorithm. In Experiment 1, the three dependent variables were: the number of links in the network, closeness measures (C), and distances between nodes. Results revealed developmental differences in network structure representations in adults and children. In Experiment 2, results revealed that these differences were not due to the cohort effect. In Experiment 3, the relationship between associative strength, as measured by associative norms, and distances, as measured by Pathfinder algorithm, was explored. The results of these three experiments and empirical research from semantic priming experiments show that these differences in memory structure representations could be one of the sources of the missing semantic priming effect in children. Keywords: Pathfinder, memory structure representations, semantic priming, cohort effect Algunos estudios con niños han mostrado que no existe facilitación semántica, con intervalos de tiempo cortos, en tareas de decisión léxica y en nombrar en homógrafos. Las predicciones de las teorías de difusión de la activación podrían explicar la ausencia de este efecto. Podría haber diferencias en las estructuras de memoria entre niños y adultos. Nosotros hemos explorado esta hipótesis. El desarrollo de las representaciones de estructuras de memoria para homógrafos se midió por el algoritmo Pathfinder. En el primer experimento, las tres variables dependientes fueron: el número de conexiones en la estructura, las medidas C y las distancias entre nodos. Los resultados revelaron diferencias evolutivas en las representaciones de las estructuras de red entre niños y adultos. En el experimento 2, los resultados mostraron que estas diferencias no eran debidas al efecto de cohorte. En el experimento 3, se exploró la relación entre la fuerza asociativa, medida por las normas de asociación, y las distancias, como medida del algoritmo Pathfinder. Los resultados de estos tres experimentos y la investigación empírica de los experimentos de facilitación semántica muestran que estas diferencias en las representaciones de estructuras de memoria podrían ser una de las fuentes para explicar la ausencia de facilitación semántica en niños. Palabras clave: Pathfinder, representaciones de estructuras de memoria, facilitación semántica, efecto cohorte

Four experiments examined the role of meaning frequency (dominance) and associative strength (measured by associative norms) in the processing of ambiguous words in isolation. Participants made lexical decisions to targets words that were associates of the more frequent (dominant) or less frequent (subordinate) meaning of a homograph prime. The first two experiments investigated the role of associative strength at long SOAs (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) (750 ms.), showing that meaning is facilitated by the targets' associative strength and not by their dominance. The last two experiments traced the role associative strength at short SOAs (250 ms), showing that the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect in the semantic priming. The conclusions are: on the one hand, semantic priming for homographs is due to associative strength manipulations at long SOAs. On the other hand, the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect when automatic processes (short SOAs) are engaged for homographs. Keywords: homographs, associative strength, dominance, lexical decision task, SOA, automatic and strategic processes A través de cuatro experimentos, se examinó el papel de la frecuencia del significado (dominancia) y de la fuerza asociativa (medida mediante normas asociativas) en el procesamiento de palabras ambiguas aisladas. Los participantes tomaron decisiones léxicas acerca de palabras meta que eran las asociadas del significado más frecuente (dominante) o menos frecuente (subordinado) de un homógrafo primo. Los primeros dos experimentos investigaron el papel de la fuerza asociativa en las SOAs (asincronía del comienzo del estímulo) largas (750 ms), demostrando que el significado se ve facilitado por la fuerza asociativa de la meta y no por su dominancia. Los segundos experimentos trazaron el papel de la fuerza asociativa en las SOAs cortas (250 ms), demostrando que la manipulación de la fuerza asociativa no influye en la ceba semántica. Se concluye que: (a) la ceba semántica para homográficos se debe a las manipulaciones de la fuerza asociativa en las SOAs largas y (b) la manipulación de la fuerza asociativa no tiene ningún efecto cuando los procesos automáticos (SOAs cortas) están ocupados para los homógrafos. Palabras clave: homógrafos, fuerza asociativa, dominancia, tarea de decisión léxica, SOA, procesos automáticos y estratégicos