The existence of differences in lexical processing between
ambiguous and unambiguous words is still controversial.
Many factors seem to play a role in determining different
ambiguity effects in word recognition, such as ambiguity
type, experimental paradigm, frequency dominance, etc. The
aim of this study is to investigate the role played by frequency
dominance and declensional class in recognizing Italian
homonymous nouns, namely, forms with multiple unrelated
meanings. We report the results of two visual lexical decision
experiments, in which these factors are manipulated. An
ambiguity disadvantage effect is found for words belonging
to two different declensional classes (Exp. 2, e.g., conte),
while an absence of processing differences is reported for
ambiguous words within the same declensional class (Exp. 1,
e.g., credenza). Moreover, an interaction between condition
and frequency is found: the inhibitory effects are stronger for
ambiguous nouns with two frequency-balanced meanings
than for ambiguous nouns with a strongly dominant meaning.
The results are compatible with the idea that several factors
should be taken into account in order to disentangle
competing accounts of lexical ambiguity processing. We
discuss these results in terms of how variables such as
frequency dominance and declensional class affect the
activation of lexical representations and play a role in
determining different ambiguity effects in lexical acces
