The Role of Word Length in Semantic Topology

2016/11/15 by Francesco Fumarola, Fumarola, Francesco
Computer Science · #91E10 #Advanced Image and Video Retrieval Techniques #Computation and Language (cs.CL) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Image Retrieval and Classification Techniques #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Topic Modeling

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1611.04842

openalex publication_date 2016/11/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

A topological argument is presented concering the structure of semantic space, based on the negative correlation between polysemy and word length. The resulting graph structure is applied to the modeling of free-recall experiments, resulting in predictions on the comparative values of recall probabilities. Associative recall is found to favor longer words whereas sequential recall is found to favor shorter words. Data from the PEERS experiments of Lohnas et al. (2015) and Healey and Kahana (2016) confirm both predictons, with correlation coefficients r_seq= -0.17 and r_ass= +0.17. The argument is then applied to predicting global properties of list recall, which leads to a novel explanation for the word-length effect based on the optimization of retrieval strategies.

Citations

• A Distributed Representation of Temporal Context
• Associative retrieval processes in free recall

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