Link-based ranking algorithms are based on the often implicit assumption that linked documents are semantically related to each other, and that link information is therefore useful for retrieval. The main aim of this paper is to test this underlying assumption on why link evidence works. We observe that links between semantically related pages are more effective for ad hoc retrieval than links ...

The present study was an attempt to replicate and extend Brown's (1979) finding of inhibition in retrieval from semantic memory produced by presentation of semantically related primes. Subjects' speed and accuracy in answering generalknowledge questions (e.g., Who was the first man to walk on the moon?) were measured when the question was preceded by one of four different prime types: neutral (...

In this study, we investigated semantic context effects in language production with event-related brain potentials, extracted from the ongoing EEG recorded during overt speech production. We combined the picture-word interference paradigm and the semantic blocking paradigm to investigate the temporal dynamics and functional loci of semantic facilitation and interference effects. Objects were na...

We used ERPs to investigate the pre-activation of form and meaning in language comprehension. Participants read high-cloze sentence contexts (e.g., ‘‘The student is going to the library to borrow a. . .”), followed by a word that was predictable (book), form-related (hook) or semantically related (page) to the predictable word, or unrelated (sofa). At a 500 ms SOA (Experiment 1), semantically r...

This study investigated whether form and meaning relatedness modulate the processing of morphologically related German verbs. In two overt visual priming experiments, we compared responses for verb targets (kommen, come) that were preceded by a purely semantically related verb (nahen, approach), by a morphologically and semantically related verb (mitkommen, come along), by a purely morphologica...

When young adults carry out visual search, distractors that are semantically related, rather than unrelated, to targets can disrupt target selection (see Belke, Humphreys, Watson, Meyer, & Telling, 2008; Moores, Laiti, & Chelazzi, 2003). This effect is apparent on the first eye movements in search, suggesting that attention is sometimes captured by related distractors. Here we assessed effects ...

During speech production, we continuously monitor what we say. In situations in which speech errors potentially have more severe consequences, e.g. during a public presentation, our verbal self-monitoring system may pay special attention to prevent errors than in situations in which speech errors are more acceptable, such as a casual conversation. In an event-related potential study, we investi...

To examine phonological and orthographic effects on semantic processing, the present study utilized a semantic task with nonverbal stimuli. In Experiment 1, Hebrew speakers were asked to decide whether 2 pictorial targets are semantically related or not. In Experiment 2, Hebrew speakers and non-Hebrew speakers were asked to rate the semantic relatedness of the same targets on a 5-point scale. E...

In four experiments we explored the effects of two variables in the pictureword interference paradigm: semantic relatedness and the level of categorisation of distractors relative to pictures’ names. Experiment 1 addressed whether the contrasting effects of semantically related distractors in categoryand basic-level naming have a methodological origin (i.e., differences in the number of respons...

The lexical representation of words in Indo European languages is generally assumed to be driven by meaning compositionality. This study examined the lexical representation of complex verbs in German, which is a morphologically rich representative of Indo European languages. Three overt priming experiments manipulated prime target relations between morphological, semantic, and form relatedness....