Abstract

FRAGAPANE, Mauro  and  VIVAS, Leticia. Semantic richness effect at different levels of lexical-semantic processing. Escritos de Psicología [online]. 2017, vol.10, n.2, pp.88-102. ISSN 1989-3809.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5231/psy.writ.2017.2802.

Semantic richness is a multidimensional construct that refers to the extent of variability of information associated with the meaning of a word. The Number of Features (NoF) is a dimension of semantic richness that has been shown to have a major influence on lexical and semantic processing. Several studies have shown that concepts with a higher NoF allow faster lexical processing than those with a lower NoF. The current study is the first to use a NoF measure based on norms obtained from a sample of Spanish-speaking participants. The aim was to study the effect of this variable in visual word recognition. The sample included 90 young native Spanish-speaking adults. Three tasks were administered that require access to different lexico-semantic levels: lexical decision, concreteness semantic categorization (concrete/abstract), and domain semantic categorization (living/non-living). A semantic richness effect was found in lexical decision and domain semantic categorization tasks, with greater effect in the latter task. Results are interpreted within the framework of the General Domain Interactive Activation model.

Keywords : Semantic Richness; Number of Features; Lexical Decision; Semantic Categorization.

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