Introduction to the research topic meaning in mind: semantic richness effects in language processing

The ultimate goal of reading is to extract meaning from printed words. However, the mechanisms that mediate orthography and semantics are not well-understood, and have rarely been implemented in computational models. To address this puzzle, one of the strategies cognitive scientists have begun to use is to examine semantic richness effects. Semantic richness effects refer to the finding that words associated with relatively more semantic information are recognized faster and more accurately, due to their possessing richer, better-specified semantic representations. Importantly, semantic richness is not a unitary concept. Instead, it draws on various theoretical perspectives and can vary along multiple dimensions. Thus, by examining which dimensions of semantic richness influence visual word recognition behavior, we gain insight about which theoretical perspectives seem to be promising descriptions of the process by which meaning is extracted from print. Our goal for this Frontiers Research Topic was to highlight the latest findings regarding semantic richness and theoretical developments on the issue of semantic processing. Our hope was to provide a forum for state-of-the-art research in this field, and to foster new theoretical advances. The 17 contributions that comprise the Research Topic certainly represent the state of the art; methodologies include ERP, fMRI, TMS, and behavioral approaches, and involve both intact and patient populations. Together, these contributions give rise to a number of inferences about semantic richness effects and implications of those effects for our understanding of semantic processing effects in visual word recognition.