Repetition Priming and Experimental Context Effects

Abstract

The repetition priming effect has been taken as evidence that lexical entries are automatically activated in memory. However, contextual cues in an experiment may influence repetition priming, suggesting that this priming may not be the result of automatic processes. Five experiments used a primed shadowing task to explore the role of phonological context on repetition priming. In the first four experiments, high- and low-expectancy conditions were tested. Between experiments, the degree of phonological relatedness (high or low phonological similarity), percentage of related trials that were repetition trials (ID ratio), and modality of stimulus presentation (auditory or visual) were manipulated. Results indicate that repetition priming in auditory word recognition is eliminated by a low ID ratio. The fact that an external variable such as the ID ratio influences repetition priming suggests that repetition priming may be the product of processes extraneous to the automatic activation of lexical entries.