Fast priming of grammatical decisions: repetition and transposed-word priming effects

We used the grammatical decision task to investigate fast priming of written sentence processing. Targets were sequences of 5 words that either formed a grammatically correct sentence or were ungrammatical. Primes were sequences of 5 words and could be the same word sequence as targets, a different sequence of words with a similar syntactic structure, the same sequence with two inner words transposed or the same sequence with two inner words substituted by different words. Prime-word sequences were presented in a larger font size than targets for 200 ms and followed by the target sequence after a 100 ms delay. We found robust repetition priming in grammatical decisions, with same sequence primes leading to faster responses compared with prime sequences containing different words. We also found transposed-word priming effects, with faster responses following a transposed-word prime compared with substituted-word primes. We conclude that fast primed grammatical decisions might offer investigations of written sentence processing what fast primed lexical decisions have offered studies of visual word recognition.

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Drawing attention to primes increases inhibitory word priming effects.

The Mental Lexicon ◽

10.1075/ml.7.2.01zim ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 119-146 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Robert Zimmerman ◽

Pablo Gomez

Keyword(s):

Masked Priming ◽

Unrelated Word ◽

Facilitatory Effect ◽

Decision Task ◽

Response Latencies ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Lexical Information ◽

Word Priming ◽

Time Required ◽

Duration Condition

Inhibitory masked priming effects in the lexical decision task (LDT) have been proven difficult to replicate. If these difficulties are due to individual differences in attention, introducing minor fluctuations in the temporal parameters of prime-target presentation should increase priming effects by drawing attention to the prime. The current study presents two experiments in which we manipulated the duration of prime presentation to this effect. In Experiment 1, we presented subjects (n = 224) with an LDT using form-related and -unrelated word primes. Subjects were assigned to a condition in which all primes were presented for 48ms, or a condition in which one-fourth of the primes were presented for 64ms. Inhibitory priming effects emerged only for the mixed duration condition. Experiment 2 repeated the procedures of the first experiment but with nonword primes. Because nonword primes have no lexical information, target item response latencies should not suffer from the additional processing time required to suppress those representations. Thus, as predicted, Experiment 2 yielded a facilitatory effect of priming. Together, these experiments show that small manipulations of the prime SOA can increase attention to the temporal location of the prime, and that when attention is drawn to the existence of primes in this manner, inhibitory word priming can be observed.

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Are There Lower Repetition Priming Effects in Children with Developmental Dyslexia? Priming Effects in Spanish with the Masked Lexical Decision Task

The Journal of General Psychology ◽

10.1080/00221309.2016.1163248 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 143 (2) ◽

pp. 81-100

Author(s):

Francisco Nievas-Cazorla ◽

Manuel Soriano-Ferrer ◽

Pilar Sánchez-López

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Lexical Decision Task ◽

Developmental Dyslexia ◽

Repetition Priming ◽

Decision Task ◽

Priming Effects

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Lexically-mediated syntactic priming effects in comprehension: Sources of facilitation

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021819834247 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 72 (9) ◽

pp. 2176-2196 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kristen M Tooley ◽

Martin J Pickering ◽

Matthew J Traxler

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Syntactic Structure ◽

Target Sentence ◽

Syntactic Priming ◽

Thematic Role ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Role Assignment ◽

Mediated Priming ◽

Structural Processing

The nature of the facilitation occurring when sentences share a verb and syntactic structure (i.e., lexically-mediated syntactic priming) has not been adequately addressed in comprehension. In four eye-tracking experiments, we investigated the degree to which lexical, syntactic, thematic, and verb form repetition contribute to facilitated target sentence processing. Lexically-mediated syntactic priming was observed when primes and targets shared a verb and abstract syntactic structure, regardless of the ambiguity of the prime. In addition, repeated thematic role assignment resulted in syntactic priming (to a lesser degree), and verb form repetition facilitated lexical rather than structural processing. We conclude that priming in comprehension involves lexically associated abstract syntactic representations, and facilitation of verb and thematic role processes. The results also indicate that syntactic computation errors during prime processing are not necessary for lexically-mediated priming to occur during target processing. This result is inconsistent with an error-driven learning account of lexically-mediated syntactic priming effects.

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An ERP Investigation of Semantic Priming, Repetition Priming, and Negative Priming in Schizophrenic Patients

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803.20.3.195 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 195-211 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Michael Wagner ◽

Lioba Baving ◽

Patrick Berg ◽

Rudolf Cohen ◽

Brigitte Rockstroh

Keyword(s):

Negative Priming ◽

Repetition Priming ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Decision Task ◽

Positive Priming ◽

Retrieval Processes ◽

Schizophrenic Patients ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Late Positive Complex ◽

Automatic Memory

The processing of attended and nonattended stimuli in schizophrenic patients was examined with event-related potentials (ERPs) in a lexical decision task. In positive semantic and repetition priming the N400 amplitude did not differ between a group of 17 medicated schizophrenic patients and a group of 20 matched healthy controls. However, negative priming affected the N400 only in controls. Reaction time effects were dissociated from these ERP effects, with patients showing stronger positive priming than controls but identical negative priming. The semantic processes related to the N400 appear to be intact in schizophrenic patients, but patients seem to incorporate less context information (about the nonattended prime) in their episodic memory traces. A stronger increase of the posterior late positive complex in parallel to the stronger positive priming in schizophrenic patients may reflect relatively stronger automatic memory retrieval processes in patients.

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Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000019 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 131-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Catharina Casper ◽

Klaus Rothermund ◽

Dirk Wentura

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Context Information ◽

Decision Task ◽

Social Categories ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Stereotype Activation ◽

Social Stereotypes ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Automatic Activation ◽

Mental Schemas

Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e.g., Bavarians – beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a marquee) but not for nonfitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a shop). Findings indicate that social stereotypes are organized as specific mental schemas that are triggered by a combination of category and context information.

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An examination of L2-L1 noncognate translation priming in the lexical decision task: insights from distributional and frequency-based analyses

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728917000013 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 265-277 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

MARIKO NAKAYAMA ◽

STEPHEN J. LUPKER ◽

YOSHIHIRO ITAGUCHI

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Lexical Decision Task ◽

High Frequency ◽

Decision Task ◽

Very High Frequency ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Target Frequency ◽

Translation Priming ◽

Japanese English ◽

Very High

The main fact that is currently known about the nature of masked L2-L1 noncognate translation priming effects in the lexical decision task is simply that those effects are significant in some studies but not in others. In an effort to better understand these effects, we examined the data pattern for very proficient Japanese–English bilinguals using RT distributional analyses. We also examined the impacts of prime and target frequency on the priming effect. Significant priming was present even on the fastest trials, becoming larger on slower trials. Nonetheless, priming effects were generally constant across prime and target frequency with the only exception being when very high frequency L2 primes were used. In that situation, priming and target frequency were negatively related, a result that essentially produced the observed pattern of increasing priming on slower trials. Implications of these results and potential reasons for the presence/absence of L2-L1 priming effects are discussed.

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Inflectional and Derivational Morphology in the Mental Lexicon: Symmetries and Asymmetries in Repetition Priming

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/02724989243000073 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 373-390 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

H. Schriefers ◽

A. Friederici ◽

P. Graetz

Keyword(s):

Repetition Priming ◽

Mental Lexicon ◽

Derivational Morphology ◽

Lexical Organization ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Complex Forms ◽

Complex Words ◽

Prime Target

Using a repetition priming paradigm, the interrelations between morphologically related words in the mental lexicon were examined in two experiments. In contrast to most previous studies, in which morphologically complex words occur as primes and stems as targets, derivationally and inflectionally complex forms were fully crossed in prime–target pairs. Experiment 1 showed asymmetries in the pattern of priming effects between different inflectional forms of German adjectives. Such asymmetries are problematic for any theory that assumes that all members of an inflectional paradigm share one entry in the mental lexicon. Experiment 2 contrasted derivational and inflectional variants of the same stems used in Experiment 1. Once again, there were same clear asymmetries in the pattern of priming effects. The implications of these results for models of lexical organization of inflectional and derivational morphology are discussed.

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Directional expressions cross-linguistically: Nanosyntax and lexicalization

Nordlyd ◽

10.7557/12.214 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. pp

Author(s):

Marina Pantcheva

Keyword(s):

Syntactic Structure ◽

Spatial Domain ◽

Font Size ◽

Fine Grained

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Neurophysiological dynamics of phrase-structure building during sentence processing

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1701590114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (18) ◽

pp. E3669-E3678 ◽

Cited By ~ 78

Author(s):

Matthew J. Nelson ◽

Imen El Karoui ◽

Kristof Giber ◽

Xiaofang Yang ◽

Laurent Cohen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sentence Processing ◽

Model Comparison ◽

Formal Model ◽

Syntactic Structure ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Transition Probability ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Similar Amount ◽

Gamma Power ◽

The Brain

Although sentences unfold sequentially, one word at a time, most linguistic theories propose that their underlying syntactic structure involves a tree of nested phrases rather than a linear sequence of words. Whether and how the brain builds such structures, however, remains largely unknown. Here, we used human intracranial recordings and visual word-by-word presentation of sentences and word lists to investigate how left-hemispheric brain activity varies during the formation of phrase structures. In a broad set of language-related areas, comprising multiple superior temporal and inferior frontal sites, high-gamma power increased with each successive word in a sentence but decreased suddenly whenever words could be merged into a phrase. Regression analyses showed that each additional word or multiword phrase contributed a similar amount of additional brain activity, providing evidence for a merge operation that applies equally to linguistic objects of arbitrary complexity. More superficial models of language, based solely on sequential transition probability over lexical and syntactic categories, only captured activity in the posterior middle temporal gyrus. Formal model comparison indicated that the model of multiword phrase construction provided a better fit than probability-based models at most sites in superior temporal and inferior frontal cortices. Activity in those regions was consistent with a neural implementation of a bottom-up or left-corner parser of the incoming language stream. Our results provide initial intracranial evidence for the neurophysiological reality of the merge operation postulated by linguists and suggest that the brain compresses syntactically well-formed sequences of words into a hierarchy of nested phrases.

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Behavioral and Electrophysiological Study of Phonological Priming between Bisyllabic Spoken Words

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892901564117 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 121-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 66

Author(s):

Nicolas Dumay ◽

Abdelrhani Benraïss ◽

Brian Barriol ◽

Cécile Colin ◽

Monique Radeau ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Electrophysiological Study ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Auditory Presentation ◽

Decision Task ◽

Phonological Priming ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Related Potentials ◽

N400 Component ◽

Lexical Processes

Phonological priming between bisyllabic (CV.CVC) spoken items was examined using both behavioral (reaction times, RTs) and electrophysiological (event-related potentials, ERPs) measures. Word and pseudoword targets were preceded by pseudoword primes. Different types of final phonological overlap between prime and target were compared. Critical pairs shared the last syllable, the rime or the coda, while unrelated pairs were used as controls. Participants performed a target shadowing task in Experiment 1 and a delayed lexical decision task in Experiment 2. RTs were measured in the first experiment and ERPs were recorded in the second experiment. The RT experiment was carried out under two presentation conditions. In Condition 1 both primes and targets were presented auditorily, while in Condition 2 the primes were presented visually and the targets auditorily. Priming effects were found in the unimodal condition only. RTs were fastest for syllable overlap, intermediate for rime overlap, and slowest for coda overlap and controls that did not differ from one another. ERPs were recorded under unimodal auditory presentation. ERP results showed that the amplitude of the auditory N400 component was smallest for syllable overlap, intermediate for rime overlap, and largest for coda overlap and controls that did not differ from one another. In both experiments, the priming effects were larger for word than for pseudoword targets. These results are best explained by the combined influences of nonlexical and lexical processes, and a comparison of the reported effects with those found in monosyllables suggests the involvement of rime and syllable representations.

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