Abstract
Integrative priming refers to the facilitated recognition of a target word (bench) as a real word following a prime (park). Prior integrative priming studies have used a wide variety of integrative relations including temporal (summer rain), topical (travel book), locative (forest river), and compositional (peach pie) relations. Yet differences in the types of integrative relations may yield differences in the underlying explanatory processes of integrative priming. In this study, we compared the magnitude, time course, and three theoretically based correlates of integrative priming for compositional (stone table) and locative (patio table) pairs in a lexical decision task across four stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs; 50, 300, 800, and 1,600 ms). Based on the Complementary Role Activation theory, integrative ratings (the extent to which the prime and target can be combined into a meaningful phrase) were predicted to facilitate target RTs. Based on the Embodied Conceptual Combination (ECCo) theory, the local co-occurrence of the prime and target, and the ability to perceptually simulate (visually experience) the prime-target pair were tested as predictors. In comparison to unrelated pairs (nose table), target RTs were faster for the compositional and locative pairs, though did not differ between these relations. In support of the Complementary Role Activation theory, integrative ratings predicted target RTs above and beyond our control variables. In support of the ECCo theory, co-occurrence emerged as an early predictor of target RTs, and visual experience ratings was a reliable predictor at the 300 ms SOA, though only for the compositional relations.
Highlights
Relational integration refers to the process by which two nouns can be combined via the inference of a sensible relation into a distinct and plausible entity that denotes a subclass of the second noun
Consistent with the Embodied Conceptual Combination (ECCo) theory’s prediction of a linguistic shortcut based on the co-occurrence of the prime-target integrative pair (Lynott and Connell, 2010), we found that co-occurrence emerged early as correlate of target zRTs at the 50 ms stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs)
We found no differences in the magnitude and time course of compositional vs. locative priming, as described further, our results have several implications for both the ECCo and Complementary Role Activation theories and suggest several future directions for both behavioral and neuroscientific research on these relations
Summary
Relational integration refers to the process by which two nouns can be combined via the inference of a sensible relation into a distinct and plausible entity that denotes a subclass of the second noun. Island house is rapidly interpreted as a house that is located on an island and denotes a specific type of house Such relational integration facilitates online word recognition in a lexical decision task ( “integrative priming”; Estes and Jones, 2009; Jones and Golonka, 2012) and in masked perceptual identification (Mather et al, 2014) as well as facilitating memory in recognition (Jones et al, 2008) and in cued recall (Badham et al, 2012). Some studies have focused on the accessibility of a specific and single type of relation within a given experiment (compositional: Estes and Jones, 2006; causal: Fenker et al, 2005; locative, instrumental, event: Hare et al, 2009). Our chosen underlying predictors of integrative priming stem from two likely explanatory theories, namely, Complementary Role Activation, (Mather et al, 2014) and Embodied Conceptual Combination (ECCo, Lynott and Connell, 2010)
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