Word frequency effect on repetition priming as a function of prime duration and delay between the prime and the target

Abstract

Two experiments studied the necessary conditions for the occurrence of repetition priming and word frequency effect on priming in a lexical decision task. To examine the role of prime processing duration, the prime was presented either for 50 ms or for 700 ms, and an interfering task was introduced between the prime and the target in order to restrict the time during which the prime was effectively processed and to limit it to exactly 50 ms or 700 ms. The interstimulus interval (ISI) between the prime and the target was 1500 ms or 3000 ms in Expt 1, and 600 ms in Expt 2. With primes presented for 50 ms, repetition priming effects were not dependent on target frequency, decreased with an increase of the ISI, and were no longer significant with an ISI of 3000 ms. With primes presented for 700 ms, repetition priming was systematically larger for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words, and remained reliable even with an ISI of 3000 ms. Thus, a minimum of prime duration was required both for maintaining repetition priming effects over more than some hundreds of milliseconds and for the occurrence of frequency effect on repetition priming. Theoretical interpretations of these results are discussed.

Memory Recruitment

“…And, by the Bayesian Reader account, masked priming should be limited to adjacent prime-target pairings that become conflated in the act of perception. Consistent with the latter accounts, initial tests suggested that masked priming was limited to a single trial and could be detected after no more than a second or two between prime and target presentations (e.g., Ferrand, 1996;Forster, Booker, Schacter, & Davis, 1990;Forster & Davis, 1984;Greenwald et al, 1996;Humphreys, Besner, & Quinlan, 1988;Versace & Nevers, 2003). In contrast, priming effects with unmasked stimuli can be very long lasting (e.g., Kolers, 1976).…”

Frequency biases in phonological variation

“…) or phonologically (Goldinger et al 1992;etc. ) related, or by repetition (Versace and Nevers 2003;etc.). On the other hand, a word is inhibited (i.e.…”

Semantic richness effects in lexical decision: The role of feedback

“…As such, it is difficult to definitively rule out the possibility that the stimulus quality × repetition priming interaction partly reflects episodic memory traces, which are outside the scope of computational word recognition models (Blais et al, 2011). For example, in Forster andDavis' (1984) lexical decision study, the effects of repetition priming and word-frequency were additive with masked primes and overadditive with unmasked primes (see also Versace & Nevers, 2003), suggesting that the interaction reflected the influence of the prime's episodic trace. To shed more light on this issue, future research might explore whether the intriguing interaction between stimulus quality and repetition priming holds up when masked primes are used.…”