Homonyms: How Word Function Affects Storage and Retrieval

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Language processing involves many different brain functions. An aspect of language is word concepts, which are stored and accessed separately from another aspect of language, the visual and auditory store of the word. Homonyms allow us to understand how these systems are set up better by giving us access to an individual word with more than one word concept. By employing studies that deal with homonym function, we are able to see homonym processing as a function of time, and by employing fMRI imaging, we are able to understand what types of processes the brain undergoes in comprehending a homonym as compared to a word with one sole meaning.

  • : Jonah Cox
  • : 2007
  • : UC Davis
  • : PSC100: Cognitive Psychology