Priming in word stem completion tasks: comparison with previous results in word fragment completion tasks

Abstract

This study investigates priming in an implicit word stem completion (WSC) task by analyzing the effect of linguistic stimuli characteristics on said task. A total of 305 participants performed a WSC task in two phases (study and test). The test phase included 63 unique-solution stems and 63 multiple-solution stems. Analysis revealed that priming (mean = 0.22) was stronger in the case of multiple-solution stems, indicating that they were not a homogeneous group of stimuli. Thus, further analyses were performed only for the data of the unique-solution stems. Correlations between priming and familiarity, frequency of use, and baseline completion were significant. The less familiar words, which were less frequent, had higher priming values. At the same time, the stems with lower baseline completion generated more priming. A regression analysis showed that baseline completion was the only significant predictor of priming, suggesting that the previous processing of the stimuli had a greater impact on the stimuli with low baseline performance. At the same time, baseline completion showed significant positive correlations with familiarity and frequency of use, and a negative correlation with length. When baseline completion was the dependent variable in the regression analysis, the significant variables in the regression were familiarity and length. These results were compared with those obtained in a study using word fragment completion (WFC) by Soler et al. (2009), in which the same words and procedure were employed. Analysis showed that the variables that correlated with priming were the same as in the WSC task, and that completion baseline was the variable that showed the greatest predictive power of priming. This coincidence of results obtained with WFC and WSC tasks highlights the importance of controlling the characteristics of the stimuli used when exploring the nature of priming.

Spanish norms for completion of restricted length word stems

“…First, priming was negatively correlated with the number of completions of the stem (r = −.16), indicating that targets having only one or few potential completions are those that produce more priming. This result is interesting, as it suggests that the number of possible completions of the stems should be considered when the priming is the dependent variable in an investigation (Soler, Dasí, & Ruiz, 2015). Second, priming SD standard deviation, SE standard error correlated negatively with word frequency (r = −.18), which is in line with previous results indicating that the highest magnitude of priming corresponds with words with the lowest frequency (Roediger et al, 1992).…”

“…The role of this variable in predicting priming is currently under debate, as its influence has been observed in some studies (e.g., Soler et al, 2015), but not in others (e.g., Gibson, 2012). All these results suggest once again that the variable number of completions should be a criterion when selecting stimuli in WSC tasks.…”

How females think about themselves and how they assume that significant others think about them: The influence of perspective taking on self-referential processing

“…For the trait-judgment task, one set of 20 and another set of 50 trait adjectives (half of which were classified as positive and half as negative ) were selected from the Aachen List of Trait Words [42]. Several stimulus properties were controlled for in the second set of 50 trait adjectives (because the first set was not relevant for further analyses; see section on trait-judgment task) in order to rule out systematic biases in participants’ choices and their memory [43, 44]. To test whether the 25 positive and 25 negative adjectives in the second set differed with respect to the word length, word frequency, absolute value of the valence, and absolute value of social desirability, a multivariate factorial analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed using post hoc univariate analyses.…”

Susceptibility to unconscious influences is unaffected by a challenging inhibitory task or mental exhaustion

“…For example, for the prime 'reliable', the stem would be 'rel' and possible completions would include 'reliable', 'relevant', 'relax' etc. Valid inferences from a stem completion task clearly depend on each stem having an appropriate minimum number of alternate completions (Soler, Dasí, & Ruiz, 2015). Studies have consistently demonstrated that when participants report being unable to read the prime i.e.…”