Priming Is Not All Bias : Commentary on Ratcliff and McKoon ( 1997 )

R. Ratcliff and G. McKoon (1997) reported a set of findings they claim is inconsistent with all prior accounts of long-term priming, including (a) a pattern of benefits and costs in an identification task suggestive of a bias interpretation of priming and (b) a restriction on priming such that benefits and costs are obtained only when the alternatives in the forced-choice task are similar. On the basis of these and related findings, Ratcliff and McKoon developed a bias theory of visual word priming that is implemented in a mathematical model. However, the present article shows that their empirical findings are ambiguous and can be explained more parsimoniously within more traditional frameworks. Furthermore, 8 studies are reported that directly contradict their model. On the basis of these and related findings, it is argued that priming is best understood as a by-product of learning within perceptual systems whose main function is to categorize inputs.

[1]  G. McConkie,et al.  Integrating information across eye movements , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[2]  M. Moscovitch,et al.  Conscious and nonconscious aspects of memory: A neuropsychological framework of modules and central systems , 1991 .

[3]  J. Dorfman,et al.  Sublexical components in implicit memory for novel words. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[4]  K. Rayner,et al.  Eye movements in reading: Psycholinguistic studies. , 1994 .

[5]  M Coltheart,et al.  Basic processes in reading: computation of abstract letter identities. , 1984, Canadian journal of psychology.

[6]  G. Humphreys,et al.  The Use of Abstract Graphemic Information in Lexical Access , 1981 .

[7]  S. E. Napps,et al.  Morphemic relationships in the lexicon: Are they distinct from semantic and formal relationships? , 1989, Memory & cognition.

[8]  Jeffrey S. Bowers,et al.  An investigation into the structure and acquisition of orthographic knowledge: Evidence from cross-script Kanji-Hiragana priming , 1998 .

[9]  L. Squire.  CHAPTER 7 – Memory and the Brain* , 1986 .

[10]  Lawrence Freedman,et al.  Fluent identification of repeated words. , 1990 .

[11]  T. Carr,et al.  Repetition and reading: Perceptual encoding mechanisms are very abstract but not very interactive. , 1989 .

[12]  L. Jacoby,et al.  On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning. , 1981, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[13]  J. Morton,et al.  Facilitation of auditory word recognition , 1984, Memory & cognition.

[14]  K. Kirsner,et al.  The Role of Script and Phonology in Lexical Representation , 1984 .

[15]  L. Jacoby,et al.  Episodic transfer and automaticity: Integration of data-driven and conceptually-driven processing in rereading. , 1992 .

[16]  L. Cooper,et al.  Bias in the priming of object decisions: logic, assumption, and data. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[17]  L R Squire,et al.  Independence of recognition memory and priming effects: a neuropsychological analysis. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[18]  S. Joordens,et al.  The long and short of semantic priming effects in lexical decision. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[19]  D Milech,et al.  Common and modality-specific processes in the mental lexicon , 1983, Memory & cognition.

[20]  R Ratcliff,et al.  A counter model for implicit priming in perceptual word identification. , 1997, Psychological review.

[21]  S. Andrews.  Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Activation or search? , 1989 .

[22]  H. Roediger.  Implicit memory in normal human subjects , 1993 .

[23]  R. Ratcliff,et al.  Bias in the priming of object decisions. , 1995, Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory and Cognition.

[24]  Kim Kirsner,et al.  Domain-specific resources in word recognition , 1989 .

[25]  James L. McClelland,et al.  A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. , 1989, Psychological review.

[26]  R Ratcliff,et al.  Bias effects in implicit memory tasks. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[27]  K. Forster,et al.  REPETITION PRIMING AND FREQUENCY ATTENUATION IN LEXICAL ACCESS , 1984 .

[28]  J. Bowers,et al.  Different perceptual codes support priming for words and pseudowords: was Morton right all along? , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[29]  H L Roediger,et al.  Specifying Criteria for Postulating Memory Systems a , 1990, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[30]  Mary Susan Weldon,et al.  Reversing the Picture Superiority Effect , 1987 .

[31]  Morris Moscovitch,et al.  Modularity and neuropsychology: Modules and central processes in attention and memory. , 1990 .

[32]  G. A. Murrell,et al.  WORD RECOGNITION AND MORPHEMIC STRUCTURE , 1974 .

[33]  P. L. Tenpenny,et al.  Abstractionist versus episodic theories of repetition priming and word identification , 1995, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[34]  D. Schacter.  Perceptual Representation Systems and Implicit Memory , 1990, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[35]  John Morton,et al.  Cross Modality Facilitation in Tachistoscopic Word Recognition , 1983 .

[36]  R Ratcliff,et al.  Connectionist models of recognition memory: constraints imposed by learning and forgetting functions. , 1990, Psychological review.

[37]  L. Jacoby,et al.  Remembering without awareness , 1982 .

[38]  H. Roediger,et al.  Explaining dissociations between implicit and explicit measures of retention: A processing account , 1989 .

[39]  Kavitha Srinivas.  Perceptual specificity in nonverbal priming. , 1993 .

[40]  C. J. Marsolek.  Abstract visual-form representations in the left cerebral hemisphere. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[41]  R M Shiffrin,et al.  Episodic and lexical contributions to the repetition effect in word identification. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[42]  D. Schacter,et al.  When priming persists: Long-lasting implicit memory for a single episode in amnesic patients , 1987, Neuropsychologia.

[43]  R. Ratcliff,et al.  How should implicit memory phenomena be modeled? , 1995, Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory and Cognition.

[44]  D. Schacter.  Implicit memory: History and current status. , 1987 .

[45]  H L Roediger,et al.  Implicit memory. Retention without remembering. , 1990, The American psychologist.

[46]  H L Roediger,et al.  Effects of exact repetition and conceptual repetition on free recall and primed word-fragment completion. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[47]  J. Bowers,et al.  Does implicit memory extend to legal and illegal nonwords? , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[48]  T. Blaxton.  Investigating dissociations among memory measures: Support for a transfer-appropriate processing framework. , 1989 .

[49]  Don L. Scarborough,et al.  Frequency and Repetition Effects in Lexical Memory. , 1977 .

[50]  Sally Andrews,et al.  Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Lexical similarity or orthographic redundancy? , 1992 .

[51]  L. Jacoby.  Perceptual enhancement: persistent effects of an experience. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[52]  B. Rapp.  The nature of sublexical orthographic organization: The bigram trough hypothesis examined , 1992 .

[53]  L. Jakobson,et al.  A neurological dissociation between perceiving objects and grasping them , 1991, Nature.

[54]  Betty Ann Levy,et al.  Reprocessing text: Indirect measures of word and message level processes. , 1989 .

[55]  S. Kosslyn,et al.  Categorical versus coordinate spatial relations: computational analyses and computer simulations. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[56]  J. Bowers,et al.  Orthographic, phonological, and articulatory contributions to masked letter and word priming. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[57]  J. Moskovljević,et al.  Repetition priming is not purely episodic in origin. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[58]  Daniel L. Schacter,et al.  Priming and Multiple Memory Systems: Perceptual Mechanisms of Implicit Memory , 1992, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[59]  George Mandler,et al.  Nonspecific Effects of Exposure on Stimuli That Cannot Be Recognized , 1987 .

[60]  L. Jacoby,et al.  Specific word transfer as a measure of processing in the word-superiority paradigm , 1989, Memory & cognition.

[61]  R Ratcliff,et al.  A bias interpretation of facilitation in perceptual identification. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[62]  E. Warrington,et al.  The effect of prior learning on subsequent retention in amnesic patients. , 1974, Neuropsychologia.

[63]  L. Cermak,et al.  The implicit memory ability of a patient with amnesia due to encephalitis , 1988, Brain and Cognition.

[64]  J. Bowers,et al.  The modality-specific and -nonspecific components of long-term priming are frequency sensitive , 2000, Memory & cognition.

[65]  Jeffrey S. Bowers,et al.  A Characterisation of the Word Superiority Effect in a Case of Letter-by-letter Surface Alexia , 1996 .

[66]  F. Craik,et al.  Depth of processing and the retention of words , 1975 .

[67]  Colin M. Macleod,et al.  CONTRIBUTIONS OF PROCESSING FLUENCY TO REPETITION EFFECTS IN MASKED WORD IDENTIFICATION , 1996 .

[68]  S Monsell,et al.  The Locus of Repetition Priming of Spoken Word Production , 1992, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[69]  G. H. Matthews,et al.  Repetition of Lexicalization across Languages: A Further Test of the Locus of Priming , 1992, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[70]  J. C. Johnston,et al.  Perception of Letters in Words: Seek Not and Ye Shall Find , 1974, Science.

[71]  R Ratcliff,et al.  Bias in the priming of object decisions. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[72]  H. Roediger,et al.  Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests. , 1993, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[73]  J. L. Mcclelland.  Preliminary letter identification in the perception of words and nonwords. , 1976, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[74]  Jeffrey S. Bowers,et al.  Fast and Specific Access to Orthographic Knowledge in a Case of Letter-by-letter Surface Alexia , 1996 .

[75]  M. Coltheart.  Disorders of reading and their implications for models of normal reading. , 1981 .

[76]  Roger Ratcliff,et al.  Separating Implicit from Explicit Retrieval Processes in Perceptual Identification , 1996, Consciousness and Cognition.

[77]  B. Challis,et al.  Dissociative effect of massed repetition on implicit and explicit measures of memory. , 1993, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[78]  D. Schacter.  Understanding implicit memory. A cognitive neuroscience approach. , 1992, The American psychologist.

[79]  Kim Kirsner,et al.  Bilingual Lexical Representation: The Status of Spanish-English Cognates , 1986 .

[80]  Henry L. Roediger,et al.  Test differences in accessing bilingual memory , 1987 .

[81]  I. Biederman,et al.  Evidence for Complete Translational and Reflectional Invariance in Visual Object Priming , 1991, Perception.

[82]  Max Coltheart,et al.  Access to the internal lexicon , 1977 .

[83]  M. Arguin,et al.  Orthography plays a critical role in cognate priming: Evidence from French/English and Arabic/French cognates , 2000, Memory & cognition.

[84]  G. Mandler,et al.  Activation makes words more accessible, but not necessarily more retrievable. , 1984 .

[85]  Daniel L. Schacter,et al.  What are the memory systems of 1994 , 1994 .

[86]  Kim Kirsner,et al.  The bilingual lexicon: Language-specific units in an integrated network , 1984 .

[87]  R Ratcliff,et al.  Bias in auditory priming. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[88]  Robert A. Bjork,et al.  Measures of Memory , 1988 .

[89]  L. Squire,et al.  Intact priming of words and nonwords in amnesia , 1991, Psychobiology.

[90]  John J. L. Morton,et al.  Interaction of information in word recognition. , 1969 .

[91]  John Morton,et al.  Facilitation in Word Recognition: Experiments Causing Change in the Logogen Model , 1979 .

[92]  D. Massaro,et al.  Visual information and redundancy in reading. , 1973, Journal of experimental psychology.

[93]  E Tulving,et al.  Priming and human memory systems. , 1990, Science.

[94]  P. A. Kolers.  Reading a Year Later. , 1976 .

[95]  R. Zajonc.  Feeling and thinking : Preferences need no inferences , 1980 .