Are different amounts of semantic processing associated with
different semantic ambiguity effects? Could this explain some
discrepant ambiguity effects observed between and across
tasks? Armstrong and Plaut (2016) provided an initial set of
neural network simulations indicating this is indeed the case.
However, their empirical findings using a lexical decision
task were not clear-cut. Here, we use improved methods and
five different experimental manipulations to slow responding-
--and the presumed amount of semantic processing---to
evaluate their account more rigorously. We also expanded
the empirical horizon to another language: Spanish. The
results are partially consistent with the predictions of the
neural network and differ in several important ways from
English data. Potential causes of these discrepancies are
discussed in relation to theories of ambiguity resolution and
cross-linguistic differences.