Semantic diversity as a graded measure of contextual diversity based on document content overlap¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Semantic diversity, introduced by Jones et al. (2012) and independently by Hoffman et al. (2013), is a graded operationalization of contextual diversity that accounts for the semantic overlap among the documents in which a word occurs, rather than simply counting distinct documents. The chapter explains that "Semantic diversity considers the information overlap in documents when computing a word's CD as a metric of word overlap," so that multiple encounters of a word in the same or highly similar documents do not substantially increase its likely need. It addresses the limitation of document-count measures that ignore the content of contexts.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A distributional representation of document content so that overlap between contexts can be computed

Constraints¶

• The chapter notes document-count operationalizations of context ignore the content of those contexts, which for semantic models is the context itself

Target Learners¶

• word learners
• readers

Target Learning Objectives¶

• lexical access
• semantic representation

Claims¶

• Contextual diversity facilitates episodic recall but impairs recognition [+W]
• Words higher in contextual diversity and semantic richness are processed more accurately and efficiently in lexical tasks [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Wickens' Context Alpha and Context Beta distinction
• Expectancy-congruency learning mechanism updating lexical representations from context fit
• Principle of likely need versus principle of repetition as competing accounts of lexical learning
• Semantic Distinctiveness Model (SDM)

Examples¶

• Teach vocabulary by varying contexts rather than repeating words within the same context

Key Sources¶

• Jones, M. N., Dye, M., & Johns, B. T. (2017). Context as an Organizing Principle of the Lexicon. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Volume 67. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.plm.2017.03.008