Word Meaning Frequencies Affect Negative Compatibility Effects In Masked Priming

Negative compatibility effects (NCEs)—that is, slower responses to targets inrelated than unrelated prime-target pairs, have been observed in studies usingstimulus-response (S-R) priming with stimuli like arrows and plus signs.Although there is no consensus on the underlying mechanism, explanations tend tolocate NCEs within the motor-response system. A characteristic property ofperceptuo-motor NCEs is a biphasic pattern of activation: A brief period inwhich very briefly presented (typically) masked primes facilitate processing ofrelated targets is followed by a phase of target processing impairment. In thispaper, we present data that suggest that NCEs are not restricted to S-R primingwith low-level visual stimuli: The brief (50 ms), backward masked (250 ms)presentation of ambiguous words (bank) leads to slowerresponses than baseline to words related to the more frequent(rob) but not less frequent meaning(swim). Importantly, we found that slowed responses arepreceded by a short phase of response facilitation, replicating the biphasicpattern reported for arrows and plus signs. The biphasic pattern of priming andthe fact that the NCEs were found only for target words that are related totheir prime word’s more frequent meaning has strong implications for any theoryof NCEs that locate these effects exclusively within the motor-response system.