Mediated Priming in the Lexical Decision Task: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials and Reaction Time

2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothee J Chwilla ◽  
Herman H.J Kolk ◽  
Gijsbertus Mulder
1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothee J. Chwilla ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
C.M. Brown

Koriat (1981) demonstrated that an association from the target to a preceding prime, in the absence of an association from the prime to the target, facilitates lexical decision and referred to this effect as “backward priming”. Backward priming is of relevance, because it can provide information about the mechanism underlying semantic priming effects. Following Neely (1991), we distinguish three mechanisms of priming: spreading activation, expectancy, and semantic matching/ integration. The goal was to determine which of these mechanisms causes backward priming, by assessing effects of backward priming on a language-relevant ERP component, the N400, and reaction time (RT). Based on previous work, we propose that the N400 priming effect reflects expectancy and semantic matching/ integration, but in contrast with RT does not reflect spreading activation. Experiment 1 shows a backward priming effect that is qualitatively similar for the N400 and RT in a lexical decision task. This effect was not modulated by an ISI manipulation. Experiment 2 clarifies that the N400 backward priming effect reflects genuine changes in N400 amplitude and cannot be ascribed to other factors. We will argue that these backward priming effects cannot be due to expectancy but are best accounted for in terms of semantic matching/integration.


1980 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Kirsner ◽  
Heather L. Brown ◽  
S. Abrol ◽  
N. K. Chadha ◽  
N. K. Sharma

Forty-eight Hindi-English bilinguals completed two blocks of trials where each trial involved presentation of a letter string requiring a lexical decision. In the first block subjects were exposed to 22 words and 11 non-words in either English or Hindi. In the second block the original words were repeated in either the same language or in the alternative language. In this block the old (repeated) words were mixed with 22 new words, and 22 non-words. Twelve subjects were included in each of the four groups given by the factorial combination of blocks and languages. Reaction time in the lexical decision task was facilitated when words were repeated in the same language (109 and 125 ms in the English-English and Hindi-Hindi groups respectively), but little or no facilitation was observed in the inter-lingual conditions (-22 and 23 ms in the Hindi-English and English-Hindi conditions respectively). The results support the view that lexical representation in bilinguals is language-specific.


Psihologija ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Lisac ◽  
Petar Milin

Since the study of Meyer and Schvaneveldt (1971), a large number of researches have shown facilitation effect in cognitive processing of a given word when it is preceded by a semantically (i.e. associatively) related word. In this study, we examined influence of association strength between context and target on visual word processing in Serbian language. Primary goal was to test cognitive relevance of the t-value and mutual information (MI) as measures of the association strength. The results showed that the mutual information affects response latencies in the visual lexical decision task: the higher the mutual information for two words (bigram), the shorter the reaction time. Contrariwise, cognitive relevance of the t-value as a measure of the words' association strength was not confirmed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Carreiras ◽  
Margaret Gillon-Dowens ◽  
Marta Vergara ◽  
Manuel Perea

To investigate the neural bases of consonant and vowel processing, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read words and pseudowords in a lexical decision task. The stimuli were displayed in three different conditions: (i) simultaneous presentation of all letters (baseline condition); (ii) presentation of all letters, except that two internal consonants were delayed for 50 msec (consonants-delayed condition); and (iii) presentation of all letters, except that two internal vowels were delayed for 50 msec (vowels-delayed condition). The behavioral results showed that, for words, response times in the consonants-delayed condition were longer than in the vowels-delayed condition, which, in turn, were longer than in the baseline condition. The ERPs showed that, starting as early as 150 msec, words in the consonants-delayed condition produced a larger negativity than words in vowels-delayed condition. In addition, there were peak latency differences and amplitude differences in the P150, N250, P325, and N400 components between the baseline and the two letter-delayed conditions. We examine the implications of these findings for models of visual-word recognition and reading.


Author(s):  
Vladimir Figar

Situated in the wider framework of frame semantics, the paper employs an experimental approach involving a reaction time study to test the activation of semantic frames via semantic priming. Experiment 1 deals with the frame of journey and employs a lexical decision task in a reaction time paradigm, while Experiment 2 deals with the frame of conflict and uses a categorization task, also in a reaction time paradigm. Both experiments were designed in Open Sesame. Target stimuli were in Serbian, selected through a norming procedure involving prototypicality ratings on Likert scales. Additionally, identical filler items were included in both experiments. Priming was performed using lexical materials modified to facilitate the activation of the respective frames. The obtained results showed that there was no facilitation in the experimental group in Experiment 1 compared to the control group; however, in Experiment 2, we were able to identify facilitation in the experimental group in the main task, licensed by the initial priming. These results suggest that the lexical decision task has a reduced cognitive load compared to the categorization task, thereby overriding the priming condition. In effect, categorization task appears to be a more suitable procedure for testing semantic frame activation.


1988 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Briand ◽  
Ken den Heyer ◽  
Gary L. Dannenbring

The present study reports two experiments that required subjects to name target items preceded by a masked prime. Additionally, and subsequent to the naming task, subjects were required to indicate whether or not the prime was a word, along with a confidence rating of their lexical decision. Experiment 1 demonstrates that the processing of masked primes is facilitated by related targets when such targets are presented either 100 or 200 msec after the onset of the prime. Experiment 2 extends the finding of “retroactive” priming to a 1000=msec separation in prime–target presentation (SOA). The extent of retroactive priming is not dependent on SOA between prime and target, nor is it affected by the prime–mask SOA, which varied from 10 to 180 msec. Priming of targets was also independent of prime–target and prime–mask SOA, providing that primes had been classified as words. For word primes classified as non-words there was no semantic priming on target naming reaction time. Implications of these findings with respect to the nature of retroactive priming and the current controversy concerning subliminal priming effects were discussed.


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