Jersey cows or jersey shirts? The influence of prior knowledge and context on ambiguity resolution

Abstract

Ambiguous words within text can slow down the comprehension process as readers need more time to determine their appropriate meaning. According to the reordered access model of ambiguity resolution, both context and frequency of usage influence the speed at which a reader selects the appropriate meaning. Additionally, prior knowledge related to one meaning of an ambiguous word can slow the speed of access if it does not align with the context of the sentence containing the ambiguous word. Such difficulties in meaning selection typically manifest as longer reading times in certain parts of a sentence (i.e., the ambiguous word, text appearing after the ambiguous word). This study expands upon previous works by comparing the effects of prior knowledge (i.e., baseball knowledge) and context on readers’ ability to determine the appropriate meaning of ambiguous words via monitoring their eye movements. A quasi-experimental design was used in which participants read 12 passages containing baseball-related ambiguous and unambiguous words presented in one of two types of prior context (i.e., context biased towards the less frequently used meaning or context biased towards the more frequently used meaning). Reading times were longer after reading dominant-biasing context and for those high in baseball knowledge. Results from this emphasize the importance of frequency of usage and context on ambiguity resolution as well as the impact of prior knowledge on comprehension overall.