Priming in item recognition: Evidence for the propositional structure of sentences

Abstract

A priming technique using item recognition was employed to investigate the structure of the memory representation of simple sentences. The experimental procedure involved presenting sentences to the subject for study and then testing single words for recognition (the subject had to decide whether the test word was in one of the study sentences). A large priming effect was obtained. Response time to a word from one of the study sentences preceded by another word from the same study sentence was over 100 milliseconds faster than response time to a word preceded by a word from a different study sentence. It was hypothesized that, if sentences are stored propositionally, then priming should be greater between words within a proposition than between words in different propositions in the same sentence. This result was obtained and provides strong evidence for the propositional structure of the sentences used in this study. In the discussion, parallels are drawn between priming and the processes used in sentence comprehension, and the process of activation is examined in some detail.