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.