Common and modality-specific processes in the mental lexicon.

Abstract

Eight experiments were conducted to resolve: (1) empirical inconsistencies in repetition effects under intermodality conditions in word identification and lexical decision, and (2) an associated theoretical conflict concerning lexical organization. The results demonstrated that although more facilitation occurs under visual-prime/visual-test (VV) conditions than under auditory-prime/visual-test (AV) conditions, significant repetition facilitation also occurs under AV conditions. The results also indicated that: repetition effects observed for the VV and AV conditions apply to high- as well as to low-frequency words; they are insensitive to a variety of encoding tasks designed to emphasize different properties of words; and they are unaffected by differences in the ease of encoding of isolated auditory and visual words. The results are consistent with the existence of both modality-specific and common or modality-free processes in word recognition, in which word-frequency effects are restricted to the second and, by implication, lexical stage.