It is not clear whether multiple unrelated meanings inhibit or facilitate word recog-
nition. Some studies have found a disadvantage for words having multiple meanings with
respect to unambiguous words in lexical decision tasks (LDT), whereas several others have
shown a facilitation for such words. In the present study, we argue that these inconsistent
findings may be due to the approach employed to select ambiguous words across studies.
To address this issue, we conducted three LDT experiments in which we varied the mea-
sure used to classify ambiguous and unambiguous words. The results suggest that multiple
unrelated meanings facilitate word recognition. In addition, we observed that the approach
employed to select ambiguous words may affect the pattern of experimental results. This
evidence has relevant implications for theoretical accounts of ambiguous words processing
and representation.

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• Semantic Ambiguity: Do Multiple Meanings Inhibit or Facilitate Word Recognition?