Joint effects of semantic priming and repetition in a lexical decision task: Implications for a model of lexical access

An experiment is reported which showed that in a lexical decision task semantic priming by a related preceding word and repetition of target words produce additive effects on decision latency. Previous models of lexical access and modifications of them are discussed, and it is argued that some such models predict an interaction of priming and repetition, while others are insufficiently precise to make a prediction. It is suggested that the generality of effects across tasks requiring lexical access must be established and the components of complex effects must be separated before an adequate model can be devised to account for the data.     

Associative and phonological priming effects after letter search on the prime

Responses to target words typically are faster and more accurate after associatively related primes (e.g., "orange-juice") than after unrelated primes (e.g., "glue-juice"). This priming effect has been used as an index of semantic activation, and its elimination often is cited as evidence against semantic access. When participants are asked to perform a letter search on the prime, associative priming typically is eliminated, but repetition and morphological priming remain. It is possible that priming survives letter search when it arises from activity in codes that are represented before semantics. This experiment examined associative and phonological priming to determine whether priming from phonologically related rhymes would remain after letter search (e.g., "moose-juice"; rhyming items were orthographically dissimilar). When participants read the primes, equivalent associative and phonological priming effects were obtained; both effects were eliminated after letter search. The impact of letter search on semantic and phonological access and implications for the structural arrangement of lexical and semantic memory are discussed.     

Effects of the degree of meaning similarity on cross-language semantic priming in highly proficient bilinguals

This study aimed to determine if access to meaning can be directly achieved from the words in the two languages, examining the influence of the degree of semantic overlap between related words across languages in the pattern of priming effects. Nonassociative semantically related words (members of the same category) were used, avoiding explicitly associative relationships. Using a priming paradigm, highly proficient Catalan–Spanish bilinguals were visually presented with pairs of words that either were translations of each other, had a very close semantic relationship (in terms of shared features), a close semantic relationship, or no semantic relationship at all. Participants performed either a lexical decision task (Experiment 1) or a semantic decision task (Experiment 2). The main results of the study were the same in both language directions (Spanish–Catalan and Catalan–Spanish), showing that the degree of semantic overlap (in terms of shared features) between words in different languages can modulate priming effects, regardless of the language of the prime and the task used. These results demonstrate that there is cross-language activation of shared semantic representations and, thus, that highly proficient bilinguals can have direct access to word meaning from the two languages.     

纳西象形文字识别中的形、音、义激活

对纳西象形文字识别中的形、音、义激活进行了考察。实验1采用色词干扰的实验范式。结果表明,纳西象形文字的字形比字音和语义更易被激活。命名颜色字的形似字的颜色比命名颜色字的音同或音似字、语义联想字的颜色快。实验2采用色词干扰实验范式的变式。结果表明,当SOA=100ms时,颜色字及其形似字对颜色块命名的启动效应显著。当SOA为200ms和400ms时,颜色字的语义联想字对颜色块命名的启动效应显著。整个研究表明,在纳西象形文字识别中,字形信息首先被激活,其次是语义,字音的激活不明显。纳西象形文字的识别符合直通假设。所以如此,与纳西象形文字的特点有关     

Episodic accessibility and morphological processing: evidence from long-term auditory priming

Long-term priming studies of lexical processing have yielded conflicting claims as to whether abstract versus episodic representations are involved during word recognition. A critical piece of evidence that could separate the two accounts rests on the existence of full morphological priming, where morphologically related words yield the same amount of priming as repeated words. In this study, participants performed speeded lexical decision on lists of auditory words and non-words, which contained repeated, morphologically related, semantically related and phonologically related pairs of items. In order to minimize the involvement of episodic factors, we increased the prime-target interval and decreased their physical similarity by introducing a change in speaker’s voice. We show that under conditions that minimize access to episodic features, the magnitude of repetition priming decreased to attain that of morphological priming. Importantly, morphological and repetition priming for words were always observed in the absence of any semantic and phonological priming, suggesting that they cannot be reduced to formal or meaning overlap. Our results support the view that long-term priming taps both abstract lexical codes with a morphological format and episodic memory components. Further, they show that episodic influences on priming can be modulated by prime-target interval and physical similarity.     

Mechanisms underlying priming on perceptual tests.

Four experiments examined perceptual, lexical, and conceptual processing effects in priming on word fragment completion (WFC) and perceptual identification (PID). In Experiment 1, visual words produced more priming than auditory or generated words, and pictures produced the least priming, suggesting that the effects of different encoding processes can be distinguished. In Experiments 2 and 3, Ss studied anagrams (e.g., tripocs), but only Ss instructed to think of the original words by mentally interchanging the vowels exhibited significant priming. Thus, lexical access is more important than surface similarity in priming. In Experiment 4, Ss studied compounds that either preserved the target's meaning (e.g., scotch bottle) or altered its meaning (e.g., scotch tape). Encoded meaning affected priming on WFC but not on PID, suggesting that conceptual processing plays a larger role in WFC. Overall the results suggest that priming must be understood in terms of multiple processes.     

维-汉-英三语者三种语言语义通达模型的实验研究

以维吾尔族大学生为研究对象,采用跨语言启动条件下的真假词汇判断任务,变换启动词与目标词的关系类型和语言种类,考察了L2—L1、L3—L1、L3—L2等三种语言词汇之间的语义通达模式。结果发现,维-汉-英三语者的三种语言词汇之间的联结模式为熟练的第二语言词汇是直接通达语义;而非熟练的第三语言词汇既借助母语词汇又借助汉语词汇来通达语义。除此之外,被试的外语熟练水平和语言间的相似性是影响外语词汇通达语义的主要原因。     

Meaning Selection and the Subcortex: Evidence of Reduced Lexical Ambiguity Repetition Effects Following Subcortical Lesions

Recent research indicates that individuals with nonthalamic subcortical (NS) lesions can experience difficulties processing lexical ambiguities in a variety of contexts. This study examined how prior processing of a lexical ambiguity influences subsequent meaning activation in 10 individuals with NS lesions and 10 matched healthy controls. Subjects made speeded lexical decisions on related or unrelated targets following homophone primes. Homophones were repeated with different targets biasing the same or different meanings on the second presentation. The effects of prime-target relatedness, interstimulus interval (200 or 1250 ms), and same vs. different meaning repetition were examined. Both the patient and control groups showed priming when the same homophone meaning was biased on repetition. When a different meaning was biased on the second presentation, no priming was evident in the controls, while facilitation remained present for the NS group, consistent with aberrant meaning selection and deactivation processes. These findings are discussed in terms of age and task-related repetition effects and current conceptions of frontal–subcortical involvement in cognition.David Copland is supported by the Australian Research Council     

Category size effects revisited: frequency and masked priming effects in semantic categorization

Previous work indicates that semantic categorization decisions for nonexemplars (e.g., deciding that TURBAN is not an animal name) are faster for high-frequency words than low-frequency words. However, there is evidence that this result might depend on category size. When narrow categories are used (e.g., Months, Numbers), there is no frequency effect for nonexemplars. This result is confirmed, and is explained in terms of a category search model, which allows a "No" decision to be generated without access to the lexical entry for the target word. This explains the absence of a frequency effect, but not the presence of a strong masked repetition priming effect, which is assumed to have a lexical source. It is shown that this effect may not be lexical, since nonwords also show similar priming. Both of these priming effects disappear when a larger category is used. This pattern of results is explained on the assumption that category search is only possible with small categories, and that tentative category decisions are generated for the unconsciously perceived prime, which leads to a marked response congruence effect.     

Attentional modulation of masked repetition and categorical priming in young and older adults

Three experiments examined the effects of temporal attention and aging on masked repetition and categorical priming for numbers and words. Participants' temporal attention was manipulated by varying the stimulus onset asynchrony (i.e., constant or variable SOA). In Experiment 1, participants performed a parity judgment task and a lexical decision task in which categorical priming and repetition priming were, respectively, tested. Experiment 2 used a semantic categorization task testing categorical priming. In Experiment 3, repetition and categorical priming were tested in the same semantic categorization task with the same stimuli. The results of the three experiments showed that masked repetition priming is insensitive to manipulations of temporal attention whereas categorical priming is. Furthermore, no differences were found between young and older adults in repetition priming effects, again contrasting with the categorical priming results for which older adults were more sensitive to attentional manipulations than young adults.     

Semantic word priming in the absence of eye fixations: Relative contributions of overt and covert attention

In the present study, we investigated the role of covert and overt attention in word identification. In repetition and semantic priming paradigms, prime words were followed by a probe for lexical decision. To make the primes available only to covert attention, we presented them for 150 msec, parafoveally (2.2° away from fixation), and under gaze-contingent foveal masking. To make the primes available to overt attention, we presented them for 150 msec, at fixation, with no masking. Results showed both repetition and semantic priming in the absence of eye fixations on the primes: There was facilitation for identical and semantically related probe words, relative to an unrelated prime-probe condition. This revealed that both word form and meaning can be processed by covert attention alone. The pattern of relative contributions of covert (∼~25%) and overt (∼~75%) attention was similar for repetition and semantic priming.     

Dissociation of semantic priming, word and non-word repetition effects by event-related potentials

Two experiments investigated the modulation of event-related potentials (ERPs) by semantic priming and item repetition. In Experiment 1, subjects silently counted occasional non-words against a background of words, a proportion of which were either semantic associates or repetitions of a preceding word. Compared to control items, ERPs to repeated words were distinguished by an early (ca. 200 msec) transient negative-going deflection and a later, topographically widespread and temporally sustained positive-going shift. In contrast, semantically primed words showed a relatively small, topographically and temporally limited positive-going modulation peaking around 500 msec. These data were interpreted as evidence against models of priming and repetition which postulate similar loci for these effects. In Experiment 2, subjects counted occasional words against a background of non-words, some of which were repeated. ERPs to repetitions showed a similar early ERP modulation to that in Experiment 1, and also displayed a later slow positive shift. This latter effect was smaller in magnitude and had a delayed onset in comparison to Experiment 1. It was concluded that the effects of repetition differ as a consequence of whether, prior to their first presentation, items possess a representation in lexical memory.     

Are individual differences in masked repetition and semantic priming reliable?

Despite the robustness of semantic priming (e.g., cat–DOG), the test-retest and internal reliabilities of semantic priming effects within individuals are surprisingly low. In contrast, repetition priming (e.g., dog–DOG) appears to be far more reliable across a range of conditions. While Stolz and colleagues attribute the low reliability in semantic priming to uncoordinated automatic processes in semantic memory, their use of unmasked priming paradigms makes it difficult to fully rule out the influence of strategic processes. In the present study, we explored the reliability of semantic and repetition priming when primes were heavily masked and cannot be consciously processed. We found that masked repetition, but not semantic, priming effects showed some degree of reliability. Interestingly, skilled lexical processors (as reflected by vocabulary knowledge and spelling ability) also produced larger masked repetition priming effects.     

Negative priming from masked words: retrospective prime clarification of center-surround inhibition?

Masked repetition and semantic priming effects were examined in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, a masked-prime lexical decision task followed a phase of detection, semantic, or repetition judgments about masked words. In Experiment 2 participants made speeded pronunciations to target words after they tried to identify masked primes, and the proportion of semantically and identically related prime-target pairs was varied. Center-surround theory CT. H. Carr & D. Dagenbach, 1990; D. Dagenbach, T. H. Carr, & A. Wilhelmsen, 1989) predicts positive repetition priming but negative semantic priming when people attempt, but fail, to extract the meanings of masked words. A retrospective prime-clarification account, in contrast, predicts that semantic and repetition priming effects will vary (being positive or negative) as a function of expectations about the prime-target relation. The data support a retrospective prime-clarification account, which, unlike center-surround theory, correctly predicted negative repetition priming effects.     

词汇加工初期语义属性的激活程度:来自ERP的证据

运用事件相关脑电位（ERP）技术,采用快速掩蔽启动范式和Go/Nogo范式,探讨汉语重复启动和语义相关启动中语义激活程度的差异和特点。实验中要求被试执行一个额外的语义判断任务,对关键刺激不做明显的行为反应。结果发现,在重复启动条件下获得了稳定的N400效应,语义相关启动条件下没有N400效应;重复启动和语义相关启动条件均未产生N250效应。在较短的SOA条件下,词频对语义的激活和加工不产生影响。     

Distribution effects of orthographic similarity and priming by masked repetition]

This research centres on the effect that the orthographic neighbourhood has in the visual recognition of words. Specifically, we studied to what extent orthographic neighbourhood distribution, that is, the number of letter positions allowing formation of at least one neighbour (Pugh, Rexer, Peter, & Katz, 1994), influences the masked repetition priming effect. In a previous study (Mathey, Robert, & Zagar, 2004), interaction between neighbourhood distribution and orthographic priming was obtained in the lexical decision task. The Interactive Activation Model (IA; McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981) simulated this interaction. With the orthographic priming effect modified for distribution of the neighbourhood of target words, it was necessary to study whether the repetition priming effect also varied as a function of this indicator. Studying this interaction presents a major theoretical issue in specifying the activating and inhibiting processes presented in the IA model. Simulations were produced to obtain precise model predictions regarding the neighbourhood distribution effect in a repetitive priming situation for our experimental material. Target words all had two neighbours that were most frequent. These neighbours were isolated, that is, distributed over two letter positions (e.g.: TAUX/faux-toux), or associated, i.e., concentrated on one single position (e.g., SEAU/beau-peau). Targets were preceded by an identical priming (repetitive priming; e.g.: seau-SEAU) or by controlled priming (e.g., &-SEAU). The simulation results obtained using the IA model show the facilitating effects of neighbourhood distribution and repetitive priming, but no interaction between these factors. The experimental results obtained in a lexical decision task confirm these predictions. Thus, the empirical data replicate the neighbourhood distribution's facilitating effect (Mathey & Zagar, 2000) as well as the facilitating effect of masked repetition (Forster & Davis, 1984). Finally, the most interesting result is that the facilitating effect of repetition is comparable for target words with associated neighbours and target words with isolated neighbours. An explanation of the combined effects of the orthographic neighbourhood and orthographic masked repetition priming, integrating data from literature as well as from the current study, is proposed within the framework of the IA model.     

The contribution of morphological and semantic relatedness to repetition priming at short and long lags: Evidence from hebrew

The effect of morphological repetition at lag 0 and at lag 15 on lexical decision was investigated in Hebrew with three types of relation between prime and target. In the semantic-plus-morphological condition (SM), the prime and the target in each pair were two semantically related derivatives of the same root. In the “pure morphological” condition (M), the prime and the target derived from the same root, but their semantic association was very low, or nonexistent. In the semantic priming condition (S), primes and targets were semantically associated but were not morphologically related. The pure semantic relationship produced a significant facilitation at lag 0 that disappeared completely at lag 15. The pure morphological relation produced (smaller but) significant facilitation at lag 0 that was not attenuated at lag 15. When prime and target were semantically as well as morphologically related, the facilitation at lag 0 was similar to semantic priming, whereas at lag 15 it was similar to the pure morphological effect. Significant repetition effects at both lags were also found with non-words that shared the same (nonsensical) root and differed with respect to real derivational affixes. The differential time course for facilitation due to semantic and morphological relatedness suggests distinct underlying processes, although at lag 0 it is possible that semantic relatedness may augment the morphological repetition effect. Morphological repetition probably facilitates the retrieval of lexical information that, under certain circumstances, is necessary for lexical decision.     

词素效应到底是什么？——来自维吾尔语的证据

利用维吾尔语的一些特点,采用视觉－视觉启动、听觉－视觉跨通道启动、和延迟重复启动等三种启动技术,改变目标词和启动词之间在词素、词形以及语义上的多种关系,通过比较启动效应的异同,来考察词素效应是否可以还原为词形启动效应、语义效应,是否可以看成是词形和语义在实时加工中相互作用的后果,从而探讨词汇加工中词素效应的实质。实验一发现,在明确配对的视觉－视觉和跨通道启动中,启动词和目标词之间只有在具有词素加语义关系（＋m＋o＋s / D,＋m＋o＋s / R;其中,m 代表词素,o 代表词形,s 代表语义,D 代表目标词为派生词,R代表目标词为自由词根;＋ 表示启动词和目标词之间在某个维度上相关,－表示启动词和目标词之间在某个维度上无关）时或者仅仅具有语义关系（－m－o＋s / D）时,才有显著的启动效应。如果启动词与目标词之间仅仅具有词素（词形）关系,而没有语义关系（＋m＋o－s / D）,或者仅仅具有词形关系（－m＋o－s / R）,它们之间的启动效应微乎其微。实验二通过使用维吾尔语中的借词和延迟启动技术,比较了词素加语义加词形（＋m＋o＋s / D）的启动和语义加词形启动（－m＋o＋s / D）以及语义启动（－m＋o＋s / D）,发现词素启动效应并没有不同于其他启动条件下的效应。两个实验都表明,语义关系是产生启动效应的关键,没有语义相关,就不可能产生词素启动,词素效应依赖于语义效应。有了语义关系,词素关系和词形关系产生的作用很小。因此,词汇加工的词素效应是词形和语义统计学规律的反应,是词形和语义加工相互作用的后果,心理词典中并不需要明确地表征词汇结构。     

Semantic satiation revisited with a lexical decision task

The semantic satiation hypothesis suggests that continuous verbalization of a word leads to a reduction in its meaning. This hypothesis was examined by having subjects repeat a priming word either once or for 30 sec prior to making a word-nonword lexical decision about a visually presented target. The primes were associated with (Experiments 1 and 3), identical to (Experiment 2), or unassociated with the word targets. As is usually found, target lexical decision times were significantly facilitated by oral priming with both the associated and identical words. While the magnitude of this facilitation effect was reduced slightly by continuous repetition of the prime in Experiment 1, no such reduction was observed in Experiments 2 and 3. These results are discussed in the context of a two-factor theory of semantic processing with the aid of Mortons logogen model. It was concluded that semantic satiation may not be semantic at all.     

Cross-language positive priming disappears, negative priming does not: Evidence for two sources of selective inhibition

The authors used a unilingual and bilingual primed lexical decision task to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored words. In the unilingual experiment, accelerated lexical decisions to probe target words resulted when the word matched the preceding target word, whereas slowed lexical decisions to probe target words resulted when the word matched the preceding ignored nontarget word. In the bilingual (English-Spanish) experiment, between-language, rather than within-language, priming manipulations were used. Although the ignored repetition negative priming effect replicated across languages, cross-language attended repetition positive priming did not. This dissociation of priming effects in the inter- versus intralanguage priming conditions contradicts episodic retrieval accounts of negative priming that deny the existence of selective inhibitory processes. On the other hand, these results support an extension of inhibition-based accounts of negative priming, because they indicate that inhibition can operate at two levels of abstraction--local word and global language--simultaneously.