Semantic priming in the lexical decision task: roles of prospective prime-generated expectancies and retrospective semantic matching.

In semantic priming paradigms for lexical decisions, the probability that a word target is semantically related to its prime (the relatedness proportion) has been confounded with the probability that a target is a nonword, given that it is unrelated to its prime (the nonword ratio). This study unconfounded these two probabilities in a lexical decision task with category names as primes and with high- and low-dominance exemplars as targets. Semantic priming for high-dominance exemplars was modulated by the relatedness proportion and, to a lesser degree, by the nonword ratio. However, the nonword ratio exerted a stronger influence than did the relatedness proportion on semantic priming for low-dominance exemplars and on the nonword facilitation effect (i.e., the superiority in performance for nonword targets that follow a category name rather than a neutral XXX prime). These results suggest that semantic priming for lexical decisions is affected by both a prospective prime-generated expectancy, modulated by the relatedness proportion, and a retrospective target/prime semantic matching process, modulated by the nonword ratio.

[1]  H. Kucera,et al.  Computational analysis of present-day American English , 1967 .

[2]  W. Montague,et al.  Category norms of verbal items in 56 categories A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms , 1969 .

[3]  R. Schvaneveldt,et al.  Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations. , 1971, Journal of experimental psychology.

[4]  Lance J. Rips,et al.  Structure and process in semantic memory: A featural model for semantic decisions. , 1974 .

[5]  M. Posner,et al.  Attention and cognitive control. , 1975 .

[6]  Alan S. Brown,et al.  Information Processing and Cognition: The Loyola Symposium , 1976 .

[7]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Evidence for facilitatory and inhibitory processes , 1976, Memory & cognition.

[8]  R. E. Schuberth,et al.  Effects of Context on the Classification of Words and Nonwords. , 1977 .

[9]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. , 1977 .

[10]  R W Schvaneveldt,et al.  Semantic-context effects on word recognition: Influence of varying the proportion of items presented in an appropriate context , 1977, Memory & cognition.

[11]  H. Shulman,et al.  Control properties of semantic coding in a lexical decision task , 1977 .

[12]  K. Stanovich,et al.  Mechanisms of sentence context effects in reading: Automatic activation and conscious attention , 1979 .

[13]  C. A. Becker.  Semantic context effects in visual word recognition: An analysis of semantic strategies , 1980, Memory & cognition.

[14]  W. Cooper,et al.  Sentence Processing: Psycholinguistic Studies Presented to Merrill Garrett. , 1980 .

[15]  K. Forster.  Priming and the Effects of Sentence and Lexical Contexts on Naming Time: Evidence for Autonomous Lexical Processing* , 1981 .

[16]  A. Koriat,et al.  Semantic facilitation in lexical decision as a function of prime-target association , 1981, Memory & cognition.

[17]  Keith E. Stanovich,et al.  Source of Inhibition in Experiments on the Effect of Sentence Context on Word Recognition. , 1982 .

[18]  K. Stanovich,et al.  On priming by a sentence context. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[19]  Gary L. Dannenbring,et al.  Strategic factors in a lexical-decision task: Evidence for automatic and attention-driven processes , 1983, Memory & cognition.

[20]  M. Rosson.  From SOFA to LOUCH: Lexical contributions to pseudoword pronunciation , 1983, Memory & cognition.

[21]  N. Segalowitz,et al.  Automatic and controlled processes in the first- and second-language reading of fluent bilinguals , 1983, Memory & cognition.

[22]  D. Balota,et al.  A word’s meaning affects the decision in lexical decision , 1984, Memory & cognition.

[23]  Mark S. Seidenberg,et al.  Pre- and postlexical loci of contextual effects on word recognition , 1984, Memory & cognition.

[24]  A. D. Groot,et al.  Primed Lexical Decision: Combined Effects of the Proportion of Related Prime-Target Pairs and the Stimulus-Onset Asynchrony of Prime and Target , 1984 .

[25]  J. Jonides,et al.  On the Cost and Benefit of Cost and Benefit , 1984 .

[26]  Annette M. B. de Groot,et al.  Word-context effects in word naming and lexical decision , 1985 .

[27]  K. Heyer,et al.  On the nature of the proportion effect in semantic priming , 1985 .

[28]  S. Kinoshita,et al.  Nonword Facilitation in a Lexical Decision Task , 1985 .

[29]  K. Briand,et al.  Automatic and strategic effects in semantic priming: An examination of Becker’s verification model , 1985, Memory & cognition.

[30]  D. Balota,et al.  Depth of Automatic Spreading Activation: Mediated Priming Effects in Pronunciation but Not in Lexical Decision , 1986 .

[31]  D. Balota,et al.  Locus of inhibition effects in the priming of lexical decisions: pre- or postlexical access? , 1986, Memory & cognition.

[32]  Dennis Norris,et al.  Word recognition: Context effects without priming , 1986, Cognition.

[33]  Raymond M. Klein,et al.  On the generality of Becker's verification model. , 1987 .

[34]  A. Durgunoğlu,et al.  Repetition, semantic priming, and stimulus quality: implications for the interactive-compensatory reading model. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[35]  J. H. Neely,et al.  Semantic Context Effects on Visual Word Processing: A Hybrid Prospective-Retrospective Processing Theory , 1989 .

[36]  J. H. Neely,et al.  Semantic priming in the pronunciation task: The role of prospective prime-generated expectancies , 1990, Memory & cognition.