Abstract
This study investigates priming in an implicit word stem completion (WSC) task by analyzing the effect of linguistic stimuli characteristics on said task. A total of 305 participants performed a WSC task in two phases (study and test). The test phase included 63 unique-solution stems and 63 multiple-solution stems. Analysis revealed that priming (mean = 0.22) was stronger in the case of multiple-solution stems, indicating that they were not a homogeneous group of stimuli. Thus, further analyses were performed only for the data of the unique-solution stems. Correlations between priming and familiarity, frequency of use, and baseline completion were significant. The less familiar words, which were less frequent, had higher priming values. At the same time, the stems with lower baseline completion generated more priming. A regression analysis showed that baseline completion was the only significant predictor of priming, suggesting that the previous processing of the stimuli had a greater impact on the stimuli with low baseline performance. At the same time, baseline completion showed significant positive correlations with familiarity and frequency of use, and a negative correlation with length. When baseline completion was the dependent variable in the regression analysis, the significant variables in the regression were familiarity and length. These results were compared with those obtained in a study using word fragment completion (WFC) by Soler et al. (2009), in which the same words and procedure were employed. Analysis showed that the variables that correlated with priming were the same as in the WSC task, and that completion baseline was the variable that showed the greatest predictive power of priming. This coincidence of results obtained with WFC and WSC tasks highlights the importance of controlling the characteristics of the stimuli used when exploring the nature of priming.
Highlights
During the last few decades, implicit memory research has employed a variety of tests to elicit unconscious memory (Capner et al, 2007)
Roediger et al (1992) analyzed the differential effects of some variables in word fragment completion (WFC) and word stem completion (WSC) tasks and did not find dissociative effects on priming. This led them to conclude that the priming generated by the WSC task is the same as that of the WFC task and that priming has a perceptual nature in both cases
Priming values of stems with a unique solution were compared with priming values of stems with two or more solutions using the independent groups t-test to test the hypothesis of competitive responses (Ryan et al, 2001)
Summary
During the last few decades, implicit memory research has employed a variety of tests to elicit unconscious memory (Capner et al, 2007). The classification proposed by Toth (2000), which has been supported by empirical research analyzing behavioral responses or performance, and by data obtained using neuroimaging techniques (Schacter et al, 2007), identifies perceptual and conceptual measures, among other tasks. Perceptual tasks, such as the word fragment completion (WFC) task, require stimulus processing based on their physical characteristics, and priming is widely accepted to reflect facilitation of perceptual processes in these tasks (Roediger and McDermott, 1993; Rueckl and Mathew, 1999; Kinjo and Snodgrass, 2000; Blum and Yonelinas, 2001). In line with this proposal, the distinction between implicit tasks based on identification processes (e.g., WFC) and those based on production processes (e.g., WSC) (Gabrieli et al, 1999; Spataro et al, 2011) is a factor that requires consideration
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