Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing

Autores
Laurino, Julieta; Kaczer, Laura
Año de publicación
2025
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
Processing word meaning often appears effortless, yet the language system must frequently resolve ambiguity by integrating broad contextual information to ensure comprehension. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the facilitation of global semantic context on word-meaning access remains a key challenge in cognitive neuroscience. In this study, we explore whether global semantic context —specifically, the thematic content of a visually presented short text— reduces the cognitive demands of word-meaning processing. Using pupillometry, we examined the contributions of context congruency and semantic ambiguity across two tasks: a word-association task (Experiment 1) and a semantic relatedness task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, global context congruence biased word associations toward context-consistent meanings, and, crucially, this was accompanied by a reduction in pupil size, indicating reduced cognitive effort. Experiment 2 revealed faster and more accurate responses in context-congruent conditions, with a concurrent reduction in pupil size. Notably, the effects of global context on pupil dilation were amplified for more ambiguous words, highlighting an interaction between lexical ambiguity and contextual facilitation. These findings provide new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms of context-to-word interactions and validate pupillometry as a sensitive marker of cognitive effort during word-meaning processing.
Fil: Laurino, Julieta. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Kaczer, Laura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Materia
PUPILLOMETRY
SEMANTICS
PLASTICITY
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
Repositorio
CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Institución
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
OAI Identificador
oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/273601
Acceder
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spelling Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processingLaurino, JulietaKaczer, LauraPUPILLOMETRYSEMANTICSPLASTICITYhttps://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.7https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1Processing word meaning often appears effortless, yet the language system must frequently resolve ambiguity by integrating broad contextual information to ensure comprehension. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the facilitation of global semantic context on word-meaning access remains a key challenge in cognitive neuroscience. In this study, we explore whether global semantic context —specifically, the thematic content of a visually presented short text— reduces the cognitive demands of word-meaning processing. Using pupillometry, we examined the contributions of context congruency and semantic ambiguity across two tasks: a word-association task (Experiment 1) and a semantic relatedness task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, global context congruence biased word associations toward context-consistent meanings, and, crucially, this was accompanied by a reduction in pupil size, indicating reduced cognitive effort. Experiment 2 revealed faster and more accurate responses in context-congruent conditions, with a concurrent reduction in pupil size. Notably, the effects of global context on pupil dilation were amplified for more ambiguous words, highlighting an interaction between lexical ambiguity and contextual facilitation. These findings provide new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms of context-to-word interactions and validate pupillometry as a sensitive marker of cognitive effort during word-meaning processing.Fil: Laurino, Julieta. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Kaczer, Laura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaCornell University2025-02info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11336/273601Laurino, Julieta; Kaczer, Laura; Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing; Cornell University; PsyArXiv; 2-2025; 1-542331-8422CONICET DigitalCONICETenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7dt8j_v1info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.31234/osf.io/7dt8jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas2025-10-22T12:07:24Zoai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/273601instacron:CONICETInstitucionalhttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/Organismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/oai/requestdasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:34982025-10-22 12:07:25.132CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicasfalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
title Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
spellingShingle Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
Laurino, Julieta
PUPILLOMETRY
SEMANTICS
PLASTICITY
title_short Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
title_full Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
title_fullStr Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
title_full_unstemmed Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
title_sort Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Laurino, Julieta
Kaczer, Laura
author Laurino, Julieta
author_facet Laurino, Julieta
Kaczer, Laura
author_role author
author2 Kaczer, Laura
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv PUPILLOMETRY
SEMANTICS
PLASTICITY
topic PUPILLOMETRY
SEMANTICS
PLASTICITY
purl_subject.fl_str_mv https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.7
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Processing word meaning often appears effortless, yet the language system must frequently resolve ambiguity by integrating broad contextual information to ensure comprehension. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the facilitation of global semantic context on word-meaning access remains a key challenge in cognitive neuroscience. In this study, we explore whether global semantic context —specifically, the thematic content of a visually presented short text— reduces the cognitive demands of word-meaning processing. Using pupillometry, we examined the contributions of context congruency and semantic ambiguity across two tasks: a word-association task (Experiment 1) and a semantic relatedness task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, global context congruence biased word associations toward context-consistent meanings, and, crucially, this was accompanied by a reduction in pupil size, indicating reduced cognitive effort. Experiment 2 revealed faster and more accurate responses in context-congruent conditions, with a concurrent reduction in pupil size. Notably, the effects of global context on pupil dilation were amplified for more ambiguous words, highlighting an interaction between lexical ambiguity and contextual facilitation. These findings provide new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms of context-to-word interactions and validate pupillometry as a sensitive marker of cognitive effort during word-meaning processing.
Fil: Laurino, Julieta. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Kaczer, Laura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
description Processing word meaning often appears effortless, yet the language system must frequently resolve ambiguity by integrating broad contextual information to ensure comprehension. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the facilitation of global semantic context on word-meaning access remains a key challenge in cognitive neuroscience. In this study, we explore whether global semantic context —specifically, the thematic content of a visually presented short text— reduces the cognitive demands of word-meaning processing. Using pupillometry, we examined the contributions of context congruency and semantic ambiguity across two tasks: a word-association task (Experiment 1) and a semantic relatedness task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, global context congruence biased word associations toward context-consistent meanings, and, crucially, this was accompanied by a reduction in pupil size, indicating reduced cognitive effort. Experiment 2 revealed faster and more accurate responses in context-congruent conditions, with a concurrent reduction in pupil size. Notably, the effects of global context on pupil dilation were amplified for more ambiguous words, highlighting an interaction between lexical ambiguity and contextual facilitation. These findings provide new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms of context-to-word interactions and validate pupillometry as a sensitive marker of cognitive effort during word-meaning processing.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025-02
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/11336/273601
Laurino, Julieta; Kaczer, Laura; Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing; Cornell University; PsyArXiv; 2-2025; 1-54
2331-8422
CONICET Digital
CONICET
url http://hdl.handle.net/11336/273601
identifier_str_mv Laurino, Julieta; Kaczer, Laura; Pupil size tracks the effects of global context and semantic ambiguity on word-meaning processing; Cornell University; PsyArXiv; 2-2025; 1-54
2331-8422
CONICET Digital
CONICET
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7dt8j_v1
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.31234/osf.io/7dt8j
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Cornell University
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Cornell University
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
reponame_str CONICET Digital (CONICET)
collection CONICET Digital (CONICET)
instname_str Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
repository.name.fl_str_mv CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
repository.mail.fl_str_mv dasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.ar
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score 12.982451

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