Strength of discourse context as a determinant of the subordinate bias effect

Two experiments examined the influence of strength of discourse bias on lex ical ambiguity resolution. Short passages were constructed to bias polarize d ambiguous words (homonyms) strongly or weakly toward the dominant or subo rdinate meanings. Using a self-paced reading task in Experiment 1, it was d emonstrated that in strongly biased discourse, reading times for homonyms i n dominant discourse did not differ from those in subordinate discourse. Ho wever, when the discourse was weakly biased, homonyms mere read faster in d ominant discourse than in subordinate discourse. Experiment 2 combined the reading paradigm with a naming task in order to provide an assessment of sp ecific word-meaning activation. Reading times on ambiguous words replicated the results of Experiment 1. In addition, naming latencies for probe words revealed that only the contextually appropriate sense of a homonym was act ivated in strongly biased discourse. In contrast, both contextually appropr iate and inappropriate senses were activated following a weakly biased subo rdinate discourse, whereas only the dominant sense was activated following weakly biased dominant discourse. The results demonstrate (1) an immediate influence of prior discourse information on lexical processing; and (2) tha t the strength of discourse constraints can play a governing role in lexica l ambiguity resolution. The results were interpreted within the framework o f a context-sensitive model of lexical ambiguity resolution.