The unbearable lightness of priming.

Full Abstract

Repetition priming from text to isolated words has been difficult to observe. One explanation for this difficulty is that previous attempts to observe this type of priming have utilised conditions that normally reduce priming. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate this hypothesis. Experiment 1 involved participants being presented with words in isolation and in text passages. The words were then presented again in a lexical decision test. Results indicated that priming occurred as a result of exposure to both isolated words and words in text, although priming was greater in the word-word condition. Experiment 2 investigated whether priming occurred in a lexical decision test on words that had been read prior to the test in Milan Kundera's novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." There was some evidence that participants who had read the book recently were faster at lexical decision to words from the book than participants who had not read the book. The two experiments therefore indicate that priming can occur from text to isolated words, although it is smaller in magnitude to that observed from word to word. Reasons for this difference, as suggested by Kirsner and Speelman (J. Exp. Psychol.:
Learn. Mem. Cogn. 22 (1996) 563) model of repetition priming, are discussed.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Speelman, Craig P (CP); Simpson, Terry A (TA); Kirsner, Kim (K);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia. c.speelman(-atsign-)cowan.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Acta psychologica (Acta Psychol (Amst)), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Sep; vol 111 (issue 2) : pp 191-204

Dates: Created 2002/09/13; Completed 2002/10/29; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12227435, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Attention
Female
Humans
Male

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.