THE INFLUENCE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL CONTEXT ON LEXICAL AMBIGUITY EFFECTS

Previous research with the visual lexical decision task demonstrated that polysemous words (multiple related senses) have a processing advantage when compared to unambiguous words, whereas homonymous unrelated meanings) disadvantage. Although same pattern of results was observed in Serbian, two effects were investigated separate studies. The aim this study test whether can be replicated both types ambiguity are presented within experimental list. To this, we conducted three experiments. In first one, mixed presentation unambiguous, homonymous, and did not reveal any effects, leading conclusion context may affect emergence effects. other experiments explicitly control for context. experiments, each type block counterbalanced order presentation. These revealed presence polysemy advantage, but homonymy disadvantage, which is common literature. Polysemy typically emerge relatively easily, disadvantage requires additional conditions. Finally, conclude does play role processing, although overall results.