The relative position priming effect depends on whether letters are vowels or consonants.

The relative position priming effect is a type of subset priming in which target word recognition is facilitated as a consequence of priming the word with some of its letters, maintaining their relative position (e.g., csn as a prime for casino). Five experiments were conducted to test whether vowel-only and consonant-only subset primes contribute equally to this effect. Experiment 1 revealed that this subset priming effect emerged when primes were composed exclusively of consonants, compared with vowel-only primes (csn-casino vs. aia-animal). Experiment 2 tested the impact of letter frequency in this asymmetry. Subset priming effects were obtained for both high- and low-frequency consonants but not for vowels, which rules out a letter frequency explanation. Experiment 3 tested the role of phonology and its contribution to the priming effects observed, by decreasing the prime duration. The results showed virtually the same effects as in the previous experiments. Finally, Experiments 4 and 5 explored the influence of repeated letters in the primes on the magnitude of the priming effects obtained for consonant and vowel subset primes (iuo-dibujo and aea-madera vs. mgn-imagen and rtr-frutero). Again, the results confirmed the priming asymmetry. We propose that a functional distinction between consonants and vowels, mainly based on the lexical constraints imposed by each of these types of letters, might provide an explanation for the whole set of results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Letter position information and printed word perception: The relative-position priming constraint.

Six experiments apply the masked priming paradigm to investigate how letter position information is computed during printed word perception. Primes formed by a subset of the target's letters facilitated target recognition as long as the relative position of letters was respected across prime and target (e.g., "arict" vs. "acirt" as primes for the target "apricot"). Priming effects were not influenced by whether or not absolute, length-dependent position was respected (e.g., "a-ric-t" vs. "arict"/"ar-i-ct"). Position of overlap of relative-position primes (e.g., apric-apricot; ricot-apricot; arict-apricot) was found to have little influence on the size of priming effects, particularly in conditions (i.e., 33 ms prime durations) where there was no evidence for phonological priming. The results constrain possible schemes for letter position coding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masked priming from orthographic neighbors: An ERP investigation.

Two experiments combined masked priming with event-related potential (ERP) recordings to examine effects of primes that are orthographic neighbors of target words. Experiment 1 compared effects of repetition primes with effects of primes that were high-frequency orthographic neighbors of low-frequency targets (e.g., faute-faune [error-wildlife]), and Experiment 2 compared the same word neighbor primes with nonword neighbor primes (e.g., aujel-autel [altar]). Word neighbor primes showed the standard inhibitory priming effect in lexical decision latencies that sharply contrasted with the facilitatory effects of nonword neighbor primes. This contrast was most evident in the ERP signal starting at around 300 ms posttarget onset and continuing through the bulk of the N400 component. In this time window, repetition primes and nonword neighbor primes generated more positive-going waveforms than unrelated primes, whereas word neighbor primes produced null effects. The results are discussed with respect to possible mechanisms of lexical competition during visual word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masked repetition and phonological priming in picture naming

We report a series of picture naming experiments in which target pictures were primed by briefly presented masked words. Experiment 1 demonstrates that the prior presentation of the same word prime (e.g., rose-ROSE) facilitates picture naming independently of the target's name frequency. In Experiment 2, primes that were homophones of picture targets (e.g., rows-ROSE) also produced facilitatory effects compared with unrelated controls, but priming was significantly larger for targets with low-frequency names relative to targets with high-frequency names. In Experiment 3, primes that were higher frequency homophones of picture targets produced facilitatory effects compared with identical primes. These results are discussed in relation to different accounts of the effects of masked priming in current models of picture naming.     

Concreteness-dependent associative priming: Separate lexical organization for concrete and abstract words.

Four experiments used associated, unrelated, and neutral ({blank}–word) pairs that varied on prime and target concreteness. In Experiment 1, associated targets were named faster than neutral targets when primes and targets were homogeneous for concreteness (i.e., concrete–concrete or abstract–abstract), but not when they were heterogeneous (i.e., concrete–abstract or abstract–concrete). Experiments 2 and 3, using lexical decision, showed priming for all pairs irrespective of prime and target concreteness. In Experiment 4, the prime was presented for 16.7 ms, followed immediately by a 168-ms random letter mask. Lexical decision times showed priming similar to that in Experiment 1. If priming in Experiments 1 and 4 reflected lexical processes, whereas priming in Experiments 2 and 3 entailed postlexical processes, then lexical processes may be functionally distinct for concrete versus abstract words. These findings are more consistent with dual-coding than common-coding explanations of concreteness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing for lexical competition during reading: Fast priming with orthographic neighbors.

Recent studies have found that masked word primes that are orthographic neighbors of the target inhibit lexical decision latencies (Davis & Lupker, 2006; Nakayama, Sears, & Lupker, 2008), consistent with the predictions of lexical competition models of visual word identification (e.g., Grainger & Jacobs, 1996). In contrast, using the fast priming paradigm (Sereno & Rayner, 1992), orthographically similar primes produced facilitation in a reading task (H. Lee, Rayner, & Pollatsek, 1999; Y. Lee, Binder, Kim, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 1999). Experiment 1 replicated this facilitation effect using orthographic neighbor primes. In Experiment 2, neighbor primes and targets were presented in different cases (e.g., SIDE–tide); in this situation, the facilitation effect disappeared. However, nonword neighbor primes (e.g., KIDE–tide) still significantly facilitated reading of targets (Experiment 3). Taken together, these results suggest that it is possible to explain the priming effects from word neighbor primes in fast priming experiments in terms of the interactions between the inhibitory and facilitory processes embodied in lexical competition models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Episodic retrieval in negative priming and repetition priming.

Subjects identified target letters flanked by incompatible distractor letters (e.g., ABA). Distractor onset was randomly simultaneous with target onset or was delayed by 400 ms. In Experiment 1, one third of probe-trial targets were identical to the preceding prime-trial distractor. Responses were slower to repeated letters than to unrepeated letters (negative priming) only when prime and probe trials shared the same distractor-onset conditions. In Experiment 2, one third of probe-trial targets were identical to the preceding prime-trial target. Significant facilitation (repetition priming) occurred for repeated targets in all conditions but was again greater when prime and probe trials shared the same distractor-onset conditions. The results strongly support episodic retrieval theories of both negative priming and repetition priming and suggest that a common mechanism underlies both phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological recoding of nonword orthographic rime primes.

The effectiveness of nonword orthographic rime primes as a function of the regularity (as defined by grapheme-phoneme correspondence [GPC] rules) of typical pronunciation was examined in this research. In Experiments 1 and 2, predictions from GPC and orthographic rime unit accounts converged, but in Experiments 3 and 4 they diverged. Experiment 1 showed that when nonword orthographic rimes were used to prime consistent regular words (e.g., mist) and atypically irregular words (e.g., pint), reliable priming was observed for regular words, but priming of atypically irregular words occurred only in the 2nd block of trials, after the orthographic rime prime itself had been primed by the Block 1 presentation of the target word. In subsequent experiments, only the 1st block of trials was examined. Experiment 2 replicated selective priming of consistent regular words observed in Block 1 of Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, nonword orthographic rimes were as effective at priming typically irregular target words (e.g., grind) as they were in priming inconsistent but typically regular target words (e.g., flint)… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masked inhibitory priming in English: Evidence for lexical inhibition.

Predictions derived from the interactive activation (IA) model were tested in 3 experiments using the masked priming technique in the lexical decision task. Experiment 1 showed a strong effect of prime lexicality: Classifications of target words were facilitated by orthographically related nonword primes (relative to unrelated nonword primes) but were inhibited by orthographically related word primes (relative to unrelated word primes). Experiment 2 confirmed IA's prediction that inhibitory priming effects are greater when the prime and target share a neighbor. Experiment 3 showed a minimal effect of target word neighborhood size (N) on inhibitory priming but a trend toward greater inhibition when nonword foils were high-N than when they were low-N. Simulations of 3 different versions of the IA model showed that the best fit to the data is produced when lexical inhibition is selective and when masking leads to reset of letter activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masked Repetition and Phonological Priming Within and Across Modalities.

Lexical decision latencies to word targets presented either visually or auditorily were faster when directly preceded by a briefly presented (53-ms) pattern-masked visual prime that was the same word as the target (repetition primes), compared with different word primes. Primes that were pseudohomophones of target words did not significantly influence target processing compared with unrelated primes (Experiments 1-2) but did produce robust priming effects with slightly longer prime exposures (67 ms) in Experiment 3. Like repetition priming, these pseudohomophone priming effects did not interact with target modality. Experiments 4 and 5 replicated this general pattern of effects while introducing a different measure of prime visibility and an orthographic priming condition. Results are interpreted within the framework of a bimodal interactive activation model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of iconicity and semantic relatedness on lexical access in american sign language.

Iconicity is a property that pervades the lexicon of many sign languages, including American Sign Language (ASL). Iconic signs exhibit a motivated, nonarbitrary mapping between the form of the sign and its meaning. We investigated whether iconicity enhances semantic priming effects for ASL and whether iconic signs are recognized more quickly than noniconic signs are (controlling for strength of iconicity, semantic relatedness, familiarity, and imageability). Twenty deaf signers made lexical decisions to the 2nd item of a prime–target pair. Iconic target signs were preceded by prime signs that were (a) iconic and semantically related, (b) noniconic and semantically related, or (c) semantically unrelated. In addition, a set of noniconic target signs was preceded by semantically unrelated primes. Significant facilitation was observed for target signs when they were preceded by semantically related primes. However, iconicity did not increase the priming effect (e.g., the target sign PIANO was primed equally by the iconic sign GUITAR and the noniconic sign MUSIC). In addition, iconic signs were not recognized faster or more accurately than were noniconic signs. These results confirm the existence of semantic priming for sign language and suggest that iconicity does not play a robust role in online lexical processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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 or 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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinetics of AMPA-type glutamate receptor channels in rat caudate-putamen neurones show a wide range of desensitization but distinct recovery characteristics

In 5 experiments the authors examine the role of object-based grouping on negative priming. The experiments used a letter-matching task with multiple letters presented in temporally separated prime and probe displays. On mismatch trials, distractor letters in primes were repeated as targets in probes, or distractor and target letters were completely different. Negative priming was shown by slowed responses when distractors were repeated as targets relative to when the stimuli differed. This occurred both when only letters were presented (Experiments 1 and 4) and when letters were surrounded by boxes (Experiment 5). Experiments 2, 3, and 4 showed that negative priming was affected by the grouping of target and distractor letters in prime displays. Negative priming was reduced when 1 of the distractor letters was placed in the target box and 1 was left outside the box; facilitatory priming was observed when both distractor letters appeared in the target box. The data were accounted for in terms of there being (a) object-based competition for visual selection, (b) inhibition of distractor objects that compete for selection with target objects, and (c) activation or inhibition of the identities of all component elements within target or distractor objects.     

Object-based perceptual grouping affects negative priming.

In 5 experiments the authors examine the role of object-based grouping on negative priming. The experiments used a letter-matching task with multiple letters presented in temporally separated prime and probe displays. On mismatch trials, distractor letters in primes were repeated as targets in probes, or distractor and target letters were completely different. Negative priming was shown by slowed responses when distractors were repeated as targets relative to when the stimuli differed. This occurred both when only letters were presented (Experiments 1 and 4) and when letters were surrounded by boxes (Experiment 5). Experiments 2, 3, and 4 showed that negative priming was affected by the grouping of target and distractor letters in prime displays. Negative priming was reduced when 1 of the distractor letters was placed in the target box and 1 was left outside the box; facilitatory priming was observed when both distractor letters appeared in the target box. The data were accounted for in terms of there being (a) object-based competition for visual selection, (b) inhibition of distractor objects that compete for selection with target objects, and (c) activation or inhibition of the identities of all component elements within target or distractor objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repetition priming is not purely episodic in origin.

The sufficiency of similarity among surface attributes of prime-target pairs to account for the pattern of facilitation obtained in the repetition priming paradigm was evaluated. In Experiment 1, morphological primes were singular, inflected case forms of Serbo-Croatian words, and visual similarity of prime and target was manipulated by alternating the two alphabets in which the Serbo-Croatian language is written. Results indicated that the magnitude of facilitation in the alphabetically alternating condition was not reduced relative to the nonalternating condition ({rupi}–{rupi} vs. {p}–{rupi}) which suggested that visual similarity is not a necessary condition for facilitation in the present task. In Experiment 2, related pairs included (a) base forms with diminutives, a class of highly productive and semantically predictable derivations marked in Serbo-Croatian by suffixes and (b) base words with morphologically unrelated monomorphemic words whose orthographic pattern encompassed the target in initial position and a sequence of letters in final position that elsewhere functions as a diminutive suffix. Collectively, the experiments suggested that structural similarity of prime and target is not a sufficient condition for facilitation in the repetition priming paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical decision as an indirect test of memory: Repetition priming and list-wide priming as a function of type of encoding.

Two experiments examined priming in the lexical decision task, an indirect test of memory. Experiment 1 manipulated type of processing during study of unrelated word pairs. Recognition of individual words benefited more from semantic than from nonsemantic processing. Repetition priming in lexical decision depended on the context in which the target appeared. Targets preceded at test by unstudied primes showed greater repetition priming if processed nonsemantically during study; targets preceded at test by studied primes were not affected by type of processing at study. Interestingly, studied targets were facilitated more by studied than by unstudied primes regardless of whether the prime came from the same pair as the target. This list-wide episodic priming occurred under all four processing conditions in Experiment 1 (consonant counting, rote rehearsal, pleasantness rating, and sentence generation) with a 250-ms stimulus onset asynchrony. Experiment 2 showed that this list-wide episodic priming disappeared by 1,000 ms, suggesting that it had resulted from relatively transient activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does English coronal place assimilation create lexical ambiguity?

The purpose of this study was to determine how potential lexical ambiguity produced by place assimilation is resolved. Four cross-modal form priming experiments using primes in sentential contexts were performed. In the first 2, prime items had underlyingly coronal offsets (e.g., right) with assimilated noncoronal place. The primes were judged to be perceptually ambiguous (between right and ripe) in Experiment 1 and noncoronal (ripe) in Experiment 2 in off-line testing. In Experiment 3, primes were replaced with corresponding underlyingly noncoronal items (ripe). In all 3 experiments, participants showed selective priming for the underlying form of the prime. A 4th form priming experiment using the gated tokens of priming stimuli used in Experiment 2 examined the role of postlexical context on this process. In this experiment, participants showed priming for both underlying and surface forms of the prime. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Handedness and performance variability as factors influencing mirror movement occurrence

The priming effects of graphemically similar (e.g., HOSE) and graphemically dissimilar (e.g., ROWS) rhymes on the naming of target words (NOSE) were examined at prime-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) of 36, 70, and 250 msec. A four-field presentation procedure was used of mask-prime-mask-target. The effects of rhyme primes were measured relative to those of nonrhyming control primes (CHEF, DISH) that matched the rhymes in frequency and length and shared no letters in the same positions. At SOAs of 36 and 70 msec, rhyme priming was inhibitory and equal for graphemically similar and graphemically dissimilar rhymes. At SOA = 250 msec, rhyme priming was insignificant with a tendency toward facilitation. The results are discussed in the context of (1) contrasting effects of complete versus partial phonological overlap within a prime-target pair, and (2) the hypothesis that phonological codes stabilize fastest and provide, therefore, the earliest and major constraint on word recognition.     

Priming by numb3r5 does not involve top-down feedback.

Using the same–different task, Perea, Du?abeitia, Pollatsek, and Carreiras (2009) showed that digits resembling letters (“leet digits”; e.g., 1 = I, 4 = A) primed pseudoword strings (e.g., V35Z3D–VESZED), but letters resembling digits (“leet letters”) did not prime digit strings (e.g., 9ES7E2–935732), and suggested that this is due to top-down feedback available for letter, but not digit, strings. Here we show that (a) single letters show as much leet priming as 3-letter words (Experiment 1); (b) leet priming is equally robust for digit strings and pseudowords when the string is 4 items long but not when 6 items long (Experiment 2); and (c) with 6-item strings, orthotactically illegal letter strings (e.g., OIAUEQ) behave just like digit strings (Experiment 3). These results indicate that the asymmetry in leet priming is not due to top-down feedback available selectively for letter strings. We offer an alternative explanation based on the Bayesian reader account of masked priming proposed by Norris and Kinoshita (2008), and the role played by the orthotactic knowledge used to extend the functional capacity of visual working memory involved in performing the same–different task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theories of priming: II. Types of primes.

In 4 lexical-decision experiments, words were primed by associatively related words, unrelated words, neutral primes, or nonwords. The associative relations between the critical targets and the targets on preceding trials were also manipulated. The speed and the accuracy of responses were virtually identical in the unrelated-word, neutral, and nonword prime conditions. Between-trials semantic priming was the same size in all of these conditions. These results cause problems for non-spreading-activation (e.g., compound-cue) models of associative priming. These models predict either that neutral and nonword primes should facilitate or inhibit lexical decisions on the targets (with the direction of the effect dependent on specific assumptions) or that more between-trials priming should occur in these conditions relative to the unrelated-word prime condition. In contrast, the results are easily explained by spreading-activation models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)