Primed-lexical decision: The effect of varying the stimulus-onset asynchrony of prime and target

Lexical decisions to word targets are usually faster when they are preceded by associatively related word primes than when they follow a neutral prime. Also; it has been shown that, under certain circumstances, lexical decisions to words preceded by unassociated word primes are slower than those to words following a neutral prime. The present study explores the influence of the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) of prime and target on these priming effects. Eleven SOAs were investigated ranging from 100 msec to 1240 msec. The facilitatory effect of related primes was reliable in all SOA conditions. The inhibitory effect of unrelated primes was reliable in all but one SOA condition. Furthermore, it was found that, up to the longest SOA, facilitation increases with SOA, whereas inhibition remains virtually constant. In the longest SOA condition both facilitation and inhibition decrease. Yet another finding was that pseudowords following non-neutral primes were processed faster than those preceded by neutral primes, except with the two shortest SOAs. It appears that the SOA data cannot be satisfactorily interpreted in terms of actual priming processes, that is, processes that prepare subsequent word recognition, and that some experimental artifacts may partly have been responsible for the observed pattern of results.     

Retroactive semantic priming in a lexical decision task

The present study reports two experiments that required subjects to name target items preceded by a masked prime. Additionally, and subsequent to the naming task, subjects were required to indicate whether or not the prime was a word, along with a confidence rating of their lexical decision. Experiment 1 demonstrates that the processing of masked primes is facilitated by related targets when such targets are presented either 100 or 200 msec after the onset of the prime. Experiment 2 extends the finding of “retroactive” priming to a 1000=msec separation in prime-target presentation (SOA). The extent of retroactive priming is not dependent on SOA between prime and target, nor is it affected by the prime-mask SOA, which varied from 10 to 180 msec. Priming of targets was also independent of prime-target and prime-mask SOA, providing that primes had been classified as words. For word primes classified as non-words there was no semantic priming on target naming reaction time. Implications of these findings with respect to the nature of retroactive priming and the current controversy concerning subliminal priming effects were discussed.     

An anxiety-related bias in semantic activation when processing threat/neutral homographs

Three experiments are reported comparing high and low-trait anxious subjects in terms of their patterns of semantic activation in response to ambiguous primes, with one threat-related and one neutral meaning. Such primes were followed by targets related to either their threat or neutral meaning, or by unrelated targets, in a lexical decision task. Experiments 1 to 3 employed stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 750 msec, 500 msec, and 1250 msec, respectively. At 500-msec SOA all subjects showed facilitation for both meanings. At 750-msec SOA the only significant priming effect was that for the threat-related meaning in the high-anxiety group, and a similar trend was found at 1250-msec SOA. Consideration of the patterns of priming for targets following ambiguous threat/neutral primes suggest that at the longer SOAs, high-anxiety subjects consciously “lock on” to a threatening interpretation if one has been made available by earlier automatic spreading activation.     

On obtaining episodic priming in a lexical decision task following paired-associate learning

In four experiments, subjects made lexical (word-nonword) decisions to target letter strings after studying paired associates. In this lexical decision test, word targets previously studied as response terms in the paired associates were preceded at a 150-ms and/or 950-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) by one of various subsets of the following six types of primes: a neutral (XXX or ready) prime, a semantically unrelated word prime episodically related to the target through its having been previously studied in the same pair, a semantically related word prime previously studied in a pair with some other unrelated word, a semantically unrelated word prime previously studied in a pair with some other unrelated word, a nonstudied semantically related word prime, and a nonstudied semantically unrelated word prime. At the 950-ms SOA, facilitation of lexical decisions produced by the episodically related primes was greater in test lists in which there were no 150-ms SOA trials intermixed, no previously studied semantically related primes, and no studied nonword targets. At the 150-ms SOA, facilitation from episodic priming was greater in test lists in which there were no semantically related primes and all studied word targets and no studied nonword targets. Facilitation effects from semantically related primes were small in magnitude and occurred inconsistently. Discussion focused on the implications these results have for the episodic-semantic memory distinction and the automaticity of episodic and semantic priming effects.     

Grammatical Priming of Visual Word Recognition in Fourth grade Children

Previous work examining context effects in children has been limited to semantic context. The current research examined the effects of grammatical priming of word-naming in fourth-grade children. In Experiment 1, children named both inflected and uninflected noun and verb target words faster when they were preceded by grammatically constraining primes than when they were preceded by neutral primes. Experiment 1 used a long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) interval of 750 msec. Experiment 2 replicated the grammatical priming effect at two SOA intervals (400 msec and 700 msec), suggesting that the grammatical priming effect does not reflect the operation of any gross strategic effects directly attributable to the long SOA interval employed in Experiment 1. Grammatical context appears to facilitate target word naming by constraining target word class. Further work is required to elucidate the loci of this effect.     

Theoretical and methodological implications of language experience and vocabulary skill: priming of strongly and weakly associated words

The effect of second language experience and vocabulary ability was investigated in a semantic priming experiment with weakly related English word pairs (e.g., city-grass). Participants made lexical decisions to targets preceded by unrelated or weakly related primes or to nonword targets preceded by words. Reliable priming was found for monolingual participants; participants who had acquired a second language showed either marginal or nonreliable effects. A similar pattern of results was found with the analysis of vocabulary ability. Only participants with the greater vocabulary ability showed a priming effect. Although previous research has shown that participants with a broad range of linguistic backgrounds demonstrate the typical semantic priming effect (e.g., green-grass) with strongly associated word pairs, weaker relationships seem to require an extensive contextual history for retrieval.     

Priming of emotion recognition

Four experiments investigated priming of emotion recognition using a range of emotional stimuli, including facial expressions, words, pictures, and nonverbal sounds. In each experiment, a prime-target paradigm was used with related, neutral, and unrelated pairs. In Experiment 1, facial expression primes preceded word targets in an emotion classification task. A pattern of priming of emotional word targets by related primes with no inhibition of unrelated primes was found. Experiment 2 reversed these primes and targets and found the same pattern of results, demonstrating bidirectional priming between facial expressions and words. Experiment 2 also found priming of facial expression targets by picture primes. Experiment 3 demonstrated that priming occurs not just between pairs of stimuli that have a high co-occurrence in the environment (for example, nonverbal sounds and facial expressions), but with stimuli that co-occur less frequently and are linked mainly by their emotional category (for example, nonverbal sounds and printed words). This shows the importance of the prime and target sharing a common emotional category, rather than their previous co-occurrence. Experiment 4 extended the findings by showing that there are category-based effects as well as valence effects in emotional priming, supporting a categorical view of emotion recognition.     

Does the proportion of associatively related pairs modulate the associative priming effect at very brief stimulus-onset asynchronies?

A number of experiments have shown that the magnitude of the associative priming effect increases substantially when there is a high proportion of associatively related pairs in the list when the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) between prime and target is long (more than 400 ms). In the present series of experiments we manipulated the proportion of associatively related pairs when the SOA was very brief (less than 200 ms). If processing of a target word is facilitated automatically by the prior presentation of a related prime, the occurrence of priming should be unaffected by the proportion of related pairs in the list. Experiment 1 showed a robust relatedness proportion effect obtained in a double lexical decision task. Experiments 2-4 used the masked priming technique at several very short SOAs (66, 116, and 166 ms) in lexical decision and naming. The results showed a reliable associative priming effect in the two tasks, which did not differ as a function of the proportion of related pairs. Finally, Experiment 5 used unmasked primes at an 83-ms SOA in which the primes remained in view after the target presentation. As in Experiments 2-4, the associative effect was not modulated by the proportion of associatively related pairs. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Semantic priming of different affective categories

The authors investigated affective semantic priming using a lexical decision task with 4 affective categories of related word pairs: neutral, happy, fearful, and sad. Results demonstrated a striking and reliable effect of affective category on semantic priming. Neutral and happy prime-targets yielded significant semantic priming. Fearful pairs showed no or modest priming facilitation, and sad primes slowed reactions to sad targets. A further experiment established that affective primes do not have generalized facilitatory-inhibitory effects. The results are interpreted as showing that the associative mechanisms that support semantic priming for neutral words are also shared by happy valence words but not for negative valence words. This may reflect increased vigilance necessary in adverse contexts or suggest that the associative mechanisms that bind negative valence words are distinct.     

Strategic reliance on phonological mediation in lexical access

The present study investigated strategic variation in reliance on phonological mediation in visual word recognition. In Experiment 1, semantically related or unrelated word primes preceded word, pseudohomophone (e.g.,trane), or nonpseudohomophone (e.g.,trank) targets in a lexical decision task. Semantic priming effects were found for words, and response latencies to pseudohomophones were longer in related than in unrelated prime conditions. In Experiment 2, related or unrelated word primes preceded word or pseudohomophone targets. A relatedness effect was found for words, although it was significant at a 600-msec prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and not at a 200-msec SOA. There was no relatedness effect for pseudohomophones. Experiment 3 was a replication of Experiment 2, except that pseudohomophones were replaced by nonpseudohomophonic orthographic controls. Facilitation effects for related target words were greater in Experiment 3 than in Experiment 2. The results reflect apparent variations in the expectation that a related prime reliably indicates that a target is a word. Although reliance on phonological mediation might be strategically contingent, there could be a brief time period in which phonologically mediated lexical access occurs automatically. Whether phonological information is maintained or suppressed subsequently depends on its overall usefulness for the task.     

Phonological priming in the lexical decision task: A failure to replicate

Some models of the lexicon predict that recognition of words should produce activation spreading to phonologically related words. Consistent with this prediction, Hillinger (1980) demonstrated priming in a visual lexical decision task for word targets preceded by graphemically similar or graphemically dissimilar primes that rhymed with the target. In Experiment 1, we investigated whether this phonological priming effect occurred automatically or because of subject strategies. Although semantically associated primes produced significant facilitation in Experiment 1, no evidence of phonological priming was obtained. Experiments 2 to 5 were conducted in an attempt to obtain the phonological priming effect. Experiment 5 was a replication of one of Hillinger’s experiments. In none of these experiments was phonological priming observed. These results indicate either that the lexicon is not organized such that spreading activation occurs on the basis of phonological similarity, or that visual lexical decisions are made without phonological mediation.     

Processing morphologically complex words in second-language learners: The effect of proficiency

The present study explored how the processing of morphologically complex words in second-language (L2) learners changes as their proficiency increases. ERPs were recorded from highly proficient and less proficient L2 learners, using the repetition priming paradigm. Three experimental conditions were investigated: morphological related/unrelated pairs, semantically related/unrelated pairs, and form related/unrelated pairs. The presence of priming in each condition was assessed by comparing responses to targets preceded by related primes with those preceded by unrelated primes. ERP results showed that highly proficient L2 learners demonstrated priming effect within 350–550 ms in the morphological condition, associating with an N400 reduction, while less proficient L2 learners showed no morphological priming effect within the N400 range. Besides, form priming effect was observed in both highly proficient and less proficient L2 learners within 400–450 ms and 450–500 ms, and semantic inhibiting effect was observed in both groups within 450–500 ms, suggesting that less proficient L2 learners were equally sensitive to the word form and meaning. The ERP results indicate that highly proficient L2 learners manifest rule-based decomposition, while less proficient L2 learners rely more on lexical storage in processing morphologically complex words. Less proficient L2 learners have not developed the decomposing mechanism, despite their sensitivity to word form and meaning. The way in which morphologically complex words are processed in L2 learners does change as their proficiency increases, validating the predictions of the declarative/procedural model.     

On the nature of neutral primes in a lexical decision task

Summary Research concerned with semantic priming has used a neutral prime as a benchmark for measuring the amount of facilitation for related targets and the amount of inhibition for unrelated targets. Recently, de Groot, Thomassen, and Hudson (1982) have reported that lexical decisions to targets are faster when preceded by the neutral prime BLANK as compared to a neutral prime consisting of a string of X's. Additionally, Antos (1979) has reported that an X neutral prime induces an inhibitory effect when the stimulus-onset-asynchrony (SOA) is short. The present experiment manipulated class of neutral prime, SOA, and practice. The results failed to support the observation by Antos. However, the results did support the finding by de Groot et al. at shorter SOA's (200 and 550 ms). At a longer (1000 ms) SOA the effect of the two neutral primes as well as the effect of the unrelated primes were equivalent. Practice had no differential effect on either of the neutral primes as compared to the unrelated priming conditions. These results were interpreted to mean that the difference between the two neutral primes at a brief SOA were perceptual in origin and that an unrelated word prime is neutral with respect to the target in the absence of strategic priming effects.     

Foveal vs. parafoveal attention-grabbing power of threat-related information

We investigated whether threat words presented in attended (foveal) and in unattended (parafoveal) locations of the visual field are attention grabbing. Neutral (nonemotional) words were presented at fixation as probes in a lexical decision task. Each probe word was preceded by 2 simultaneous prime words (1 foveal, 1 parafoveal), either threatening or neutral, for 150 ms. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the primes and the probe was either 300 or 1,000 ms. Results revealed slowed lexical decision times on the probe when primed by an unrelated foveal threat word at the short (300-ms) delay. In contrast, parafoveal threat words did not affect processing of the neutral probe at either delay. Nevertheless, both neutral and threat parafoveal words facilitated lexical decisions for identical probe words at 300-ms SOA. This suggests that threat words appearing outside the focus of attention do not draw or engage cognitive resources to such an extent as to produce interference in the processing of concurrent or subsequent neutral stimuli. An explanation of the lack of parafoveal interference is that semantic content is not extracted in the parafovea.     

Priming word recognition with orthographic neighbors: effects of relative prime-target frequency

Four lexical decision experiments were performed with an orthographic priming paradigm in which test words were preceded by orthographically related or unrelated prime words. When prime words were presented for 350 ms without a mask, it was observed that primes that are lower frequency orthographic neighbors of the target interfered with target processing relative to an unrelated condition. When primes were higher frequency neighbors of the target, no interference or facilitation was observed. On the other hand, with briefly presented masked primes, interference was observed with higher frequency prime words. Finally, facilitatory effects in masked repetition priming were obtained with both high- and low-frequency prime-target pairs. The results are interpreted in terms of activation and selection processes operating in visual word recognition.     

Morphological effects in children word reading: A priming study in fourth graders

A growing corpus of evidence suggests that morphology could play a role in reading acquisition, and that young readers could be sensitive to the morphemic structure of written words. In the present experiment, we examined whether and when morphological information is activated in word recognition. French fourth graders made visual lexical decisions to derived words preceded by primes sharing either a morphological or an orthographic relationship with the target. Results showed significant and equivalent facilitation priming effects in cases of morphologically and orthographically related primes at the shortest prime duration, and a significant facilitation priming effect in the case of only morphologically related primes at the longer prime duration. Thus, these results strongly suggest that a morphological level is involved in children's visual word recognition, although it is not distinct from the formal one at an early stage of word processing.     

Semantic Processing of Foveally and Parafoveally Presented Words in a Lexical Decision Task

Using a lexical decision task in which two primes appeared simultaneously in the visual field for 150 msec followed by a target word, two experiments examined semantic priming from attended and unattended primes as a function of both the separation between the primes in the visual field and the prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA). In the first experiment significant priming effects were found for both the attended and unattended prime words, though the effect was much greater for the attended words. In addition, and also for both attention conditions, priming showed a tendency to increase with increasing eccentricity (2.3°, 3.3°, and 4.3°) between the prime words in the visual field at the long (550 and 850 msec) but not at the short (250 msec) prime-target SOA. In the second experiment the prime stimuli were either two words (W-W) or one word and five Xs (W-X). We manipulated the degree of eccentricity (2° and 3.6°) between the prime stimuli and used a prime-target SOA of 850 msec. Again significant priming was found for both the attended and unattended words but only the W-W condition showed a decrement in priming as a function of the separation between the primes; this decrement came to produce negative priming for the unattended word at the narrow (2°) separation. These results are discussed in relation to the semantic processing of parafoveal words and the inhibitory effects of focused attention.     

Form-based priming in spoken word recognition: the roles of competition and bias.

Phonological priming of spoken words refers to improved recognition of targets preceded by primes that share at least one of their constituent phonemes (e.g., BULL-BEER). Phonetic priming refers to reduced recognition of targets preceded by primes that share no phonemes with targets but are phonetically similar to targets (e.g., BULL-VEER). Five experiments were conducted to investigate the role of bias in phonological priming. Performance was compared across conditions of phonological and phonetic priming under a variety of procedural manipulations. Ss in phonological priming conditions systematically modified their responses on unrelated priming trials in perceptual identification, and they were slower and more errorful on unrelated trials in lexical decision than were Ss in phonetic priming conditions. Phonetic and phonological priming effects display different time courses and also different interactions with changes in proportion of related priming trials. Phonological priming involves bias; phonetic priming appears to reflect basic properties of activation and competition in spoken word recognition.     

Semantic and associative priming in picture naming

We report four picture-naming experiments in which the pictures were preceded by visually presented word primes. The primes could either be semantically related to the picture (e.g., "boat" - TRAIN: co-ordinate pairs) or associatively related (e.g., "nest" - BIRD: associated pairs). Performance under these conditions was always compared to performance under unrelated conditions (e.g., "flower" - CAT). In order to distinguish clearly the first two kinds of prime, we chose our materials so that (a) the words in the co-ordinate pairs were not verbally associated, and (b) the associate pairs were not co-ordinates. Results show that the two related conditions behaved in different ways depending on the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) separating word and picture appearance, but not on how long the primes were presented. When presented with a brief SOA (114 ms, Experiment 1), the co-ordinate primes produced an interference effect, but the associated primes did not differ significantly from the unrelated primes. Conversely , with a longer SOA (234 ms, Experiment 2) the co-ordinate primes produced no effect, whereas a significant facilitation effect was observed for associated primes, independent of the duration of presentation of the primes. This difference is interpreted in the context of current models of speech production as an argument for the existence, at an automatic processing level, of two distinguishable kinds of meaning relatedness.     

Doesconal prime canal more thancinal? Masked phonological priming effects in Spanish with the lexical decision task

Evidence for an early involvement of phonology in word identification usually relies on the comparison between a target word preceded by a homophonic prime and an orthographic control (rait-RATE vs. raut-RATE). This comparison rests on the assumption that the two control primes are equally orthographically similar to the target. Here, we tested for phonological effects with a masked priming paradigm in which orthographic similarity between priming conditions was perfectly controlled at the letter level and in which identification of the prime was virtually at chance for both stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) (66 and 50 msec). In the key prime-target pairs, each prime differed from the target by one vowel letter, but one changed the sound of the initial c, and the other did not (cinal-CANAL vs. conal-CANAL). In the control prime-target pairs, the primes had the identical vowel manipulation, but neither changed the initial consonant sound (pinel-PANEL vs. ponel-PANEL). For both high- and low-frequency words, lexical decision responses to the target were slower when the prime changed the sound of the c than when it did not, whereas there was no difference for the controls at both SOAs. However, this phonological effect was small and was not significant when the SOA was 50 msec. The pattern of data is consistent with an early phonological coding of primes that occurs just a little later than orthographic coding.