The Psychology of Word Meanings Cog Studies Grp of the Inst for Behavioral Research at UGA Series

This volume contains perspectives from a collection of cognitive scientists on the psychological, philosophical, and educational issues surrounding the meanings of words and how these meanings are learned and accessed. It features chapters covering the nature and structure of word meaning, how new word meanings are acquired in childhood and later on in life, and how research in word processing may tell us something about the way in which word meanings are represented and how they relate to the language processor.

Contents: G.L. Murphy, Meaning and Concepts. B.C. Malt, Word Meaning and Word Use. P.J. Schwanenflugel, B.G. Blount, P-J. Lin, Cross-Cultural Aspects of Word Meanings. J. Hampton, The Combination of Prototype Concepts. E.J. Shoben, Predicating and Non-Predicating Combinations. M.G. McKeown, Learning Word Meanings From Definitions: Problems and Potential. S.A. Stahl, Beyond the Instrumentalist Hypothesis: Some Relationships Between Word Meaning and Comprehension. D.A. Balota, R. Ferraro, L.T. Connor, On the Early Influence of Meaning in Word Recognition: A Review of the Literature. P.J. Schwanenflugel, Why Are Abstract Concepts Hard to Understand? C. Chiarello, Interpretations of Word Meanings by the Cerebral Hemispheres: One is not Enough.