Jennifer M Rodd
Biographic Data
| ID | 1666182 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer M Rodd |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer M |
| FAMILY NAME | Rodd |
| SIGNATURE | RODD J M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8608-7244 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The effects of contextual diversity on lexical processing
Research into the effects of contextual diversity on lexical processing has flourished in the past 20 years, encompassing different tasks, populations, and languages, and informing influential theories of word learning. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the field. Eighty-six articles (145 experiments) composed of three distinct study types (behavioural [ N = 111], computational modelling [ N = 20], and corpus validations [ N = 14]…
What we mean when we say semantic
Tulving characterized semantic memory as a vast repository of meaning that underlies language and many other cognitive processes. This perspective on lexical and conceptual knowledge galvanized a new era of research undertaken by numerous fields, each with their own idiosyncratic methods and terminology. For example, “concept” has different meanings in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. As such, many fundamental constructs used to delineate…
The contribution of learning and memory processes to verb-specific syntactic processing
We exposed specific verbs towards their dispreferred syntactic interpretations. • Primed interpretations were more preferable ∼ 20 min after encountering them. • There is some evidence that this enhanced preferability was present 12 h later. • Verb-bias priming is underpinned by memory systems. • Results are consistent with an episodic context account of language processing. Certain aspects of lexical knowledge can be primed by recent usage, with…
Moving experimental psychology online
The past 10 years have seen rapid growth of online (web-based) data collection across the behavioural sciences. Despite the many important contributions of such studies, some researchers have concerns about the reduction in experimental control when research moves outside of laboratory conditions. This paper provides an accessible overview of the issues that can adversely affect data quality in online experiments, with particular focus on cogniti…
Recall and recognition of discourse memory across sleep and wake
The episodic context account (Gaskell et al., 2019) proposes that the act of language comprehension gives rise to an episodic discourse representation, and that this representation is prone to sleep-related memory effects. In three experiments, we tested this prediction by asking participants to read/listen to naturalistic stories before their memory was tested after a 12-hr interval, which included either daytime wakefulness or overnight sleep. …
Diversity of narrative context disrupts the early stage of learning the meanings of novel words
High quality lexical representations develop through repeated exposures to words in different contexts. This preregistered experiment investigated how diversity of narrative context affects the earliest stages of word learning via reading. Adults ( N = 100) learned invented meanings for eight pseudowords, which each occurred in five written paragraphs either within a single coherent narrative context or five different narrative contexts. The word…
Word-meaning priming extends beyond homonyms
When a homonym (e.g., bark) is encountered in a sentential context that biases its interpretation towards a less frequent meaning, subsequent interpretations of the word are more likely to favour that subordinate meaning. Such word-meaning priming effects have been shown to be maintained via sleep-related consolidation, leading some to suggest that declarative memory systems play a crucial role in language comprehension, providing a relatively en…
The relationship between sentence comprehension and lexical-semantic retuning
A single encounter with an ambiguous word (e.g. bark, ball) in the context of a less-frequent meaning (e.g. “Sally worried about how crowded the ball would be.”) can shift the later interpretation of the word toward the same subordinate meaning. This lexical-semantic retuning functions to improve future comprehension of ambiguous words. The present paper investigates the relationship between this form of learning and the specific processes that o…
Settling Into Semantic Space
Most words are ambiguous: Individual word forms (e.g., run) can map onto multiple different interpretations depending on their sentence context (e.g., the athlete/politician/river runs). Models of word-meaning access must therefore explain how listeners and readers can rapidly settle on a single, contextually appropriate meaning for each word that they encounter. I present a new account of word-meaning access that places semantic disambiguation a…
Incidental Learning and Long-Term Retention of New Word Meanings From Stories
This study used a Web-based naturalistic story-reading paradigm to investigate the impact of number of exposures on incidental acquisition and long-term retention of new meanings for known words by native English-speaking adults. Participants read one of four custom written stories in which they encountered novel meanings (e.g., a safe concealed within a piece of furniture) for familiar words (foam). These meanings appeared two, four, six, or eig…
Resolving Semantic Ambiguities in Sentences
Functional MRI studies of how the brain processes sentences containing semantically ambiguous words have consistently implicated (i) the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and (ii) posterior regions of the left temporal lobe in processing high-ambiguity sentences. This article reviews recent findings on this topic and relates them to (i) psycholinguistic theories about the underlying cognitive processes and (ii) general neuro-cognitive accounts o…
Making Sense of Semantic Ambiguity
Incidental Learning and Long-Term Retention of New Word Meanings From Stories
This study used a Web-based naturalistic story-reading paradigm to investigate the impact of number of exposures on incidental acquisition and long-term retention of new meanings for known words by native English-speaking adults. Participants read one of four custom written stories in which they encountered novel meanings (e.g., a safe concealed within a piece of furniture) for familiar words (foam). These meanings appeared two, four, six, or eig…
Resolving Semantic Ambiguities in Sentences
Functional MRI studies of how the brain processes sentences containing semantically ambiguous words have consistently implicated (i) the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and (ii) posterior regions of the left temporal lobe in processing high-ambiguity sentences. This article reviews recent findings on this topic and relates them to (i) psycholinguistic theories about the underlying cognitive processes and (ii) general neuro-cognitive accounts o…
Making Sense of Semantic Ambiguity
Resolving Semantic Ambiguities in Sentences
Functional MRI studies of how the brain processes sentences containing semantically ambiguous words have consistently implicated (i) the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and (ii) posterior regions of the left temporal lobe in processing high-ambiguity sentences. This article reviews recent findings on this topic and relates them to (i) psycholinguistic theories about the underlying cognitive processes and (ii) general neuro-cognitive accounts o…
Incidental Learning and Long-Term Retention of New Word Meanings From Stories
This study used a Web-based naturalistic story-reading paradigm to investigate the impact of number of exposures on incidental acquisition and long-term retention of new meanings for known words by native English-speaking adults. Participants read one of four custom written stories in which they encountered novel meanings (e.g., a safe concealed within a piece of furniture) for familiar words (foam). These meanings appeared two, four, six, or eig…
Settling Into Semantic Space
Most words are ambiguous: Individual word forms (e.g., run) can map onto multiple different interpretations depending on their sentence context (e.g., the athlete/politician/river runs). Models of word-meaning access must therefore explain how listeners and readers can rapidly settle on a single, contextually appropriate meaning for each word that they encounter. I present a new account of word-meaning access that places semantic disambiguation a…
The relationship between sentence comprehension and lexical-semantic retuning
A single encounter with an ambiguous word (e.g. bark, ball) in the context of a less-frequent meaning (e.g. “Sally worried about how crowded the ball would be.”) can shift the later interpretation of the word toward the same subordinate meaning. This lexical-semantic retuning functions to improve future comprehension of ambiguous words. The present paper investigates the relationship between this form of learning and the specific processes that o…
Word-meaning priming extends beyond homonyms
When a homonym (e.g., bark) is encountered in a sentential context that biases its interpretation towards a less frequent meaning, subsequent interpretations of the word are more likely to favour that subordinate meaning. Such word-meaning priming effects have been shown to be maintained via sleep-related consolidation, leading some to suggest that declarative memory systems play a crucial role in language comprehension, providing a relatively en…
Diversity of narrative context disrupts the early stage of learning the meanings of novel words
High quality lexical representations develop through repeated exposures to words in different contexts. This preregistered experiment investigated how diversity of narrative context affects the earliest stages of word learning via reading. Adults ( N = 100) learned invented meanings for eight pseudowords, which each occurred in five written paragraphs either within a single coherent narrative context or five different narrative contexts. The word…
Moving experimental psychology online
The past 10 years have seen rapid growth of online (web-based) data collection across the behavioural sciences. Despite the many important contributions of such studies, some researchers have concerns about the reduction in experimental control when research moves outside of laboratory conditions. This paper provides an accessible overview of the issues that can adversely affect data quality in online experiments, with particular focus on cogniti…
Recall and recognition of discourse memory across sleep and wake
The episodic context account (Gaskell et al., 2019) proposes that the act of language comprehension gives rise to an episodic discourse representation, and that this representation is prone to sleep-related memory effects. In three experiments, we tested this prediction by asking participants to read/listen to naturalistic stories before their memory was tested after a 12-hr interval, which included either daytime wakefulness or overnight sleep. …
The effects of contextual diversity on lexical processing
Research into the effects of contextual diversity on lexical processing has flourished in the past 20 years, encompassing different tasks, populations, and languages, and informing influential theories of word learning. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the field. Eighty-six articles (145 experiments) composed of three distinct study types (behavioural [ N = 111], computational modelling [ N = 20], and corpus validations [ N = 14]…
What we mean when we say semantic
Tulving characterized semantic memory as a vast repository of meaning that underlies language and many other cognitive processes. This perspective on lexical and conceptual knowledge galvanized a new era of research undertaken by numerous fields, each with their own idiosyncratic methods and terminology. For example, “concept” has different meanings in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. As such, many fundamental constructs used to delineate…
The contribution of learning and memory processes to verb-specific syntactic processing
We exposed specific verbs towards their dispreferred syntactic interpretations. • Primed interpretations were more preferable ∼ 20 min after encountering them. • There is some evidence that this enhanced preferability was present 12 h later. • Verb-bias priming is underpinned by memory systems. • Results are consistent with an episodic context account of language processing. Certain aspects of lexical knowledge can be primed by recent usage, with…
Psychology (11 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (8 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (7 works) · Ambiguity (6 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (4 works) · Cognition (4 works) · Natural language processing (4 works)