Unsettling Questions About Semantic Ambiguity in Connectionist Models: Comment on Joordens and Besner (1994)

S. Joordens and D. Besner (1994) described an attempt to simulate a semantic ambiguity advantage in lexical decision using a connectionist model (Masson, 1991) that was based on a Hopfield (1982) network. The question of the validity of the ambiguity advantage is briefly considered, and the assumptions behind the simulation results reported by Joordens and Besner are critically examined. The model used by Joordens and Besner is compared with other connectionist models, and alternative methods of simulating lexical decisions with this class of models are discussed. It is concluded that further empirical evidence is required and that a number of modeling alternatives need to be explored before strong conclusions can be made about the validity of the semantic ambiguity advantage and about the best way to model the effect.