Lexical Access in the Processes of Associative and Semantic Priming

Angela Ku-Yuan and Tzeng Li-Hao Yeh

Semantic priming is a robust effect in the literature of lexical access. It refers to the phenomenon that the processing time of a target word can be facilitated if a semantically related prime is presented first. However, researches also show that when the prime and the target are semantically related, they are often lexically associated as well. Therefore, it is important to differentiate the processes of semantic priming and associative priming to fully understand the processing of lexical access. Two experiments were conducted by a priming paradigm in this study. A 3 x 3 design was introduced in experiment 1. Two independent variables were prime DURATION (50 ms, 150 ms, and 300 ms) and prime TYPE (ASSOCIATIVE, BOTH, and CONTORL). Both primes and targets were two-character compound words in Mandarin. In ASSOCIATIVE condition, prime and target usually occur together but are not related semantically; In BOTH condition, they were semantically related, and also occur together frequently. There were totally 90 trials. Subjects were to name the targets as fast as possible. Results showed significant main effect of DURAITON and TYPE. BOTH condition had the fastest RT, followed by ASSOCIATIVE, then CONTORL condition. The interaction was not significant. This result suggested semantic relatedness was not necessary for priming. Associative relatedness can also produce priming effect. A similar design was used in the second experiment except the primes were pictures. Prime DURATION and TYPE were the independent variables. Pictures were used because they were supposed to carry semantic information only, no lexical cue. Main effect of both DURATION and TYPE were significant, as well as their interaction. Again, RT in BOTH condition was the fastest, followed by ASSOCIATIVE, then CONTROL. The important finding in this experiment was that ASSOCIATIVE condition only show priming effect with DURATION as 300 ms. Conceptually, pictures were not supposed to produce associative priming for they don’t carry lexical information. This was true in conditions with shorter DURATION (50 and 150 ms), but not so in condition with long DURATION. This seemed to suggest associative priming is an automatic processing in lexical access under certain conditions. Two main conclusions can be drawn in this study. First of all, we found medium prime duration (150 ms) showed greatest priming effect. Long duration allows different processing and may slow down RT. Secondly, associative priming and semantic priming were two different processes.