Form Priming Research Articles

Representational level matters for tone-word recognition: Evidence from form priming.

In a form priming experiment with a lexical decision task, we investigated whether the representational structure of lexical tone in lexical memory impacts spoken-word recognition in Mandarin. Target monosyllabic words were preceded by five types of primes: (1) the same real words (/lun4/-/lun4/), (2) real words with only tone contrasts (/lun2/-/lun4/), (3) unrelated real words (/pie3/-/lun4/), (4) pseudowords with only tone contrasts (*/lun3/-/lun4/), and (5) unrelated pseudowords (*/tai3/-/lun4/). We found a facilitation effect in target words with pseudoword primes that share the segmental syllable but contrast in tones (*/lun3/-/lun4/). Moreover, no evident form priming effect was observed in target words primed by real words with only tone contrasts (/lun2/-/lun4/). These results suggest that the recognition of a tone word is influenced by the representational level of tone accessed by the prime word. The distinctive priming patterns between real-word and pseudoword primes are best explained by the connectionist models of tone-word recognition, which assume a hierarchical representation of lexical tone.

The phonological congruency modulated long-term form priming of Chinese characters.

Elucidating the interaction between lexical processing and word learning is essential for a complete understanding of the underlying mechanisms of each of them. Long-term priming for words reflects an interplay between lexical processing and word learning. Although robust long-term priming effects have been found between two occurrences of the same word and between semantically similar words, it remains unclear whether long-term priming between orthographically similar words (i.e., long-term form priming) is a reliable effect. Following the theoretical analysis based on the connectionist framework, we articulated the possibility that long-term form priming might be modulated by the phonological congruency between the prime and target words, and that if this modulator was under control, reliable effects of long-term form priming would emerge. However, this hypothesis has not been adequately tested empirically. The present study tested this hypothesis by using Chinese phonograms and the phonetic radicals embedded in them as the prime and target items. In three experiments that varied in the types of stimuli and testing tasks, we consistently found that when the prime and target had the same phonology, naming the prime facilitated later processing of the target, while when they had different phonologies, the priming effect was inhibitory. These observations were consistent with the connectionist account of long-term priming for words. Our findings help confirm the reliability, generalizability, and robustness of long-term form priming and elucidate its underlying mechanisms, and suggesting promising future directions on the interactions between lexical processing and word learning.

Convolutional Neural Networks Trained to Identify Words Provide a Surprisingly Good Account of Visual Form Priming Effects

A wide variety of orthographic coding schemes and models of visual word identification have been developed to account for masked priming data that provide a measure of orthographic similarity between letter strings. These models tend to include hand-coded orthographic representations with single unit coding for specific forms of knowledge (e.g., units coding for a letter in a given position). Here we assess how well a range of these coding schemes and models account for the pattern of form priming effects taken from the Form Priming Project and compare these findings to results observed with 11 standard deep neural network models (DNNs) developed in computer science. We find that deep convolutional networks (CNNs) perform as well or better than the coding schemes and word recognition models, whereas transformer networks did less well. The success of CNNs is remarkable as their architectures were not developed to support word recognition (they were designed to perform well on object recognition), they classify pixel images of words (rather than artificial encodings of letter strings), and their training was highly simplified (not respecting many key aspects of human experience). In addition to these form priming effects, we find that the DNNs can account for visual similarity effects on priming that are beyond all current psychological models of priming. The findings add to the recent work of Hannagan et al. (2021) and suggest that CNNs should be given more attention in psychology as models of human visual word recognition.

Word learning and lexicalization in a second language: Evidence from the Prime lexicality effect in masked form priming

In a masked form priming lexical decision task, orthographically related word primes cause null or inhibitory priming relative to unrelated controls because of lexical competition between primes and targets, whereas orthographically related nonword primes lead to facilitation because nonwords are not lexically represented and hence do not evoke lexical competition. This prime lexicality effect (PLE) has been used as an index of new word lexicalization in the developing lexicon by using to-be-learned words and their orthographic neighbors as primes and targets, respectively. Experiment 1 confirmed an inhibitory effect of −46 ms among native English speakers and faciliatory effects of 52 ms by Japanese English learners without critical word training. In Experiment 2, Japanese English learners studied novel English words while performing a meaning-based, form-based, or no task during learning. Recall measures indicated a dissociation between these two types of processing, with a form-based task leading to greater recall of L2 words and a meaning-based task leading to greater recall of L1 words. Results indicated that all three learning conditions produced neither facilitation nor inhibition (null priming effect). Taken together, the results of the two experiments demonstrate that the PLE can occur in a second language (L2) and that the training procedure can yield at least partial lexicalization of new L2 words.

Are form priming effects phonological or perceptual? Electrophysiological evidence from American Sign Language

Form priming has been used to identify and demarcate the processes that underlie word and sign recognition. The facilitation that results from the prime and target being related in form is typically interpreted in terms of pre-activation of linguistic representations, with little to no consideration for the potential contributions of increased perceptual overlap between related pairs. Indeed, isolating the contribution of perceptual similarity is impossible in spoken languages; there are no listeners who can perceive speech but have not acquired a sound-based phonological system. Here, we compared the electrophysiological indices of form priming effects in American Sign Language between hearing non-signers (i.e., who had no visual-manual phonological system) and deaf signers. We reasoned that similarities in priming effects between groups would most likely be perceptual in nature, whereas priming effects that are specific to the signer group would reflect pre-activation of phonological representations. Behavior in the go/no-go repetition detection task was remarkably similar between groups. Priming in a pre-N400 window was also largely similar across groups, consistent with an early effect of perceptual similarity. However, priming effects diverged between groups during the subsequent N400 and post-N400 windows. Signers had more typical form priming effects and were especially attuned to handshape overlap, whereas non-signers did not exhibit an N400 component and were more sensitive to location overlap. We attribute this pattern to an interplay between perceptual similarity and phonological knowledge. Perceptual similarity contributes to early phonological priming effects, while phonological knowledge tunes sensitivity to linguistically relevant dimensions of perceptual similarity.

Memory for affixes in a long-lag priming paradigm.

Psycholinguistic research on the processing of morphologically complex words has largely focused on debates about how/if lexical stems are recognized, stored, and retrieved. Comparatively little processing research has investigated similar issues for functional affixes. In Word or Lexeme Based Morphology (Aronoff 1994), affixes are not representational units on par with stems or roots. This view is in stark contrast to the claims of linguistic theories like Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1993), which assign rich representational content to affixes. We conducted a series of eight visual lexical decision studies, evaluating effects of derivational affix priming along with stem priming, identity priming, form priming, and semantic priming at long and short lags. We find robust and consistent affix priming (but not semantic or form priming) with lags up to 33 items, supporting the position that affixes are morphemes, i.e., representational units on par with stems. Intriguingly, we find only weaker evidence for the long-lag stem priming effect found in other studies. We interpret this potential asymmetry in terms of the salience of different morphological contexts for recollection memory.

Phonological precision for word recognition in skilled readers.

According to the lexical quality hypothesis, differences in the orthographic, semantic, and phonological representations of words will affect individual reading performance. While several studies have focused on orthographic precision and semantic coherence, few have considered phonological precision. The present study used a suite of individual difference measures to assess which components of lexical quality contributed to competition resolution in a masked priming experiment. The experiment measured form priming for word and pseudoword targets with dense and sparse neighbourhoods in 84 university students. Individual difference measures of language and cognitive skills were also collected and a principal component analysis was used to group these data into components. The data showed that phonological precision and NHD interacted with form priming. In participants with high phonological precision, the direction of priming for word targets with sparse neighbourhoods was facilitatory, while the direction for those with dense neighbourhoods was inhibitory. In contrast, people with low phonological precision showed the opposite pattern, but the interaction was non-significant. These results suggest that the component of phonological precision is linked to lexical competition for word recognition and that access to the mental lexicon during reading is affected by differing levels of phonological processing.

Masked form priming with newly-learned pseudo-L2 words in novice bilinguals

AbstractThis study explores whether novice bilinguals store newly-learned pseudo-L2 words together with or separately from the L1, by testing whether pseudo-L2 words compete with their formally-similar L1 words. Although we attempted to obtain a prime lexicality effect (PLE), with newly-trained pseudo-L2 words as primes and their formally-similar words in L1 as targets (stafe-STARE) showing an inhibitory effect, and untrained nonword primes with these targets (stace-STARE) showing a facilitatory effect, no such PLE was obtained. This was the case despite the fact that these newly-learned pseudo-L2 words yielded repetition priming (stafe-STAFE), suggesting that some form of representations were developed for these words. These results are discussed in terms of how to test newly-learned pseudo-L2 words, and whether competition can be exploited to test lexical integration.

Why do non-native English speakers show masked form priming when native speakers do not?

Abstract Native English speakers do not show masked priming effects in lexical decision when a prime word is related to its target purely on the basis of orthographic form (e.g., pillow-PILL, protest-PROTECT). There is strong evidence, however, that non-native English speakers do show such form priming. This paper explores the possible cognitive mechanisms behind this difference between native and non-native speakers. Taft and Li (2020) found that only non-native speakers (with Chinese as their first language) showed priming when the nonword prime ended in the same embedded word as the word target (e.g., plerough-THOROUGH), but a newly reported experiment goes on to show priming for native speakers as well when the shared letter-combination is not itself a word (e.g., celtoise-TORTOISE). This contrast in results leads to the interpretation that native speakers have a specific mechanism for activating embedded words that is important when recognizing polymorphemic words through their stems. It is suggested that non-native speakers, or at least those with Chinese as their first language, do not engage or are slow in engaging such a mechanism. The form priming that they demonstrate arises from facilitated processing of the repeated letters rather than the pre-activation of a lexical representation.

Finding the man amongst many: A developmental perspective on mechanisms of morphological decomposition

Skilled reading is characterized by rapid recognition of morphologically complex words. Evidence suggests that adult readers segment complex words into their constituent morphemes during visual word recognition, and that this extends to items that have only a surface morphological structure (e.g., corner), a process termed ‘morpho-orthographic segmentation’. It is not yet known how and when this mechanism is established over the course of reading development, although data from English-speaking children suggest that it may be a relatively late-acquired milestone. The purpose of this study was to examine for the first time the mechanisms driving morphological processing across late childhood and adolescence. A cross-sectional sample of 204 children and adolescents from South-East England, ranging in age from 9 to 18 years (M age = 13.74 years, SD = 2.68; 110 female), completed a visual masked prime lexical decision task using three sets of prime-target pairs: morphological (e.g., teacher – TEACH), pseudomorphological (sharing an apparent morphological relationship in the absence of a semantic relationship, e.g., corner – CORN), and form (sharing an orthographic relationship only, e.g., window – WIND). Linear mixed effects models revealed both morphological and pseudomorphological priming in the absence of form priming, with priming magnitude increasing in line with age, and stronger evidence of morpho-orthographic segmentation emerging in line with word reading efficiency. Our findings reveal advances in the reading system during adolescence which may reflect accumulated exposure to regularities in the writing system, facilitating rapid access to meaning from print.

Comparing incidental vocabulary learning from reading-only and reading-while-listening

This study compares incidental vocabulary learning in reading-while-listening and reading-only conditions. Using both offline and online outcome measures, I assessed explicit form and meaning knowledge and the lexicalization of new words. I also explored how L2 listening and reading proficiency moderated learning gains in the two treatment conditions. L2 learners first read or read-while-listened to four short stories in English for meaning, with embedded target vocabulary items. They then completed surprise vocabulary posttests in the order of a form priming lexical decision task, a form recognition test, a form-meaning connection test and a semantic priming lexical decision task. Results showed that while the reading-while-listening group outperformed the reading-only group in recognizing the form and meaning of the target vocabulary, neither group fully lexicalized the new words, which was crucial for fluent lexical retrieval. L2 listening and reading proficiency affected learning from reading-while-listening and reading-only differentially: the reading-while-listening group was negatively affected by L2 reading proficiency when controlling for listening proficiency while performance of the reading-only group was not predicted by L2 proficiency. Implications for the use of bimodal input in incidental vocabulary learning are discussed.

Masked form priming as a function of letter position: An evaluation of current orthographic coding models.

A word's exterior letters, particularly its initial letter, appear to have a special status when reading. Therefore, most orthographic coding models incorporate assumptions giving initial letters and, in some cases, final letters, enhanced importance during the orthographic coding process. In the present article, 3 masked priming experiments were carried out, using the conventional lexical-decision task, the sandwich priming lexical-decision task and the masked priming same-different task, in an attempt to examine a number of those models with a specific focus on the implications of the models' assumptions concerning the different letter positions. The related primes and targets were 6-letter strings that differed in 2 letter positions, initial (e.g., jnckey-HOCKEY), middle (e.g., hojney-HOCKEY), or final (hockjn-HOCKEY), with the middle-letters different primes being the primes that maintained both end letters. To the extent possible, the predictions of the models were derived by using easyNet, the simulation program recently developed by Adelman, Gubian, and Davis (2017). In all experiments, the final-letters different primes were the most effective primes with there being no clear distinction between the other 2 prime types, a pattern that none of the models predicted. The lack of an advantage for the middle-letters different primes suggests that the orthographic code driving masked priming is not one that places a special emphasis on the identities of the exterior letters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Integration of newly learned L2 words into the mental lexicon is modulated by vocabulary learning method

The aim of the study was to investigate both L2 word integration and the effect of learning method on it. For this purpose, an L2 word-learning paradigm was designed with two learning methods: L2 words were paired with videos in the first one and their translation-equivalent L1 words in the second. To test L2 word integration, a lexical decision task associated with form priming was administered before and after the learning phase. The L2 words to be learned were used as primes. Forty-eight participants participated in the study. Before learning, a facilitation effect was obtained with pseudowords (not already learned L2 words) as primes and L1 words as targets. After learning, L2 words no longer facilitated L1 word recognition when learned with the video method, while they still had this effect when learned with the L1 words – L2 words method. In accordance with the prime lexicality effect (PLE), this absence of a facilitation effect indicates that L1 words and L2 words are involved in a lexical competition process common to the two languages. This result highlights swift lexicalisation and demonstrates the effect of learning method in lexicalisation.

Letter connectedness and Arabic visual word recognition.

This study investigates the processing consequences of letter connectedness during Arabic visual word recognition. Specifically, this study examined (a) whether there is a processing cost associated with letter connectedness during word-level reading and (b) whether this factor modulates form-level activation among words during lexical access. Experiment 1 tested one-, two-, and three-chunk Arabic words and nonwords in a lexical decision task with masked identity priming. Experiment 2 tested the same stimuli in a lexical decision task with masked form priming, in which prime-target pairs differed by a letter associated with the morphological root. In both experiments, there was a clear processing cost for letter connectedness-one-chunk words had longer processing times than two-chunk words, which had longer processing times than three-chunk words. Comparable processing time differences were also found for nonwords, suggesting that letter connectedness influences Arabic word recognition at a prelexical orthographic processing stage. Furthermore, although reliable priming was found in both the experiments, there was a suggestion that letter connectedness modulated form priming effects (Experiment 2), with the strongest effect for three-chunk word targets. These findings are taken to indicate that letter connectedness is an important factor that should be considered-and controlled for-in examinations of Arabic visual word recognition.

The impact of text orientation on form priming effects in four-character Chinese words.

Does visuospatial orientation influence repetition and transposed character (TC) priming effects in logographic scripts? According to perceptual learning accounts, the nature of orthographic (form) priming effects should be influenced by text orientation (Dehaene, Cohen, Sigman, & Vinckier, 2005; Grainger & Holcomb, 2009). In contrast, Witzel, Qiao, and Forster's (2011) abstract letter unit account argues that the mechanism responsible for such effects acts at a totally abstract orthographic level (i.e., the visuospatial orientation is irrelevant to the nature of the relevant orthographic code). The present experiments expanded this debate beyond alphabetic scripts and the syllabic Kana script used by Witzel et al. to a logographic script (Chinese). Experiment 1 showed masked repetition and TC priming effects with primes and targets presented in both the conventional left-to-right horizontal orientation and the vertical top-to-bottom orientation, replicating Witzel et al. Experiment 2 showed masked repetition and TC priming effects even when both the primes and targets were presented in the right-to-left orientation, a rare but existent text orientation in Chinese. In Experiment 3, the primes, but not the targets, were presented in the right-to-left orientation. Priming effects were again obtained regardless of the fact that the primes and targets appeared in different orientations. Experiment 4, which involved primes and targets presented in a completely novel bottom-to-top orientation, also produced a TC priming effect. These results support abstract letter/character unit accounts of form priming effects while failing to support perceptual learning accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Subphonemic Variation and Lexical Processing: Social and Stylistic Factors

Different pronunciation variants of the same word can facilitate lexical access, but they may be more or less effective primes depending on their phonological form, stylistic appropriateness, familiarity, and social prestige, suggesting that multiple phonological variants are encoded in the lexicon with varying strength. The current study investigated how subphonemic variation is encoded using a lexical decision task with cross-modal form priming. The results revealed that the magnitude of priming was mediated by stylistic and social properties of the auditory primes, including speaking style, talker dialect, and duration. These interactions provide evidence that phonetically reduced forms and forms that are not socially prestigious are not as robustly encoded in the lexicon as canonical forms and forms produced in prestigious varieties.

Lexical representation of Mandarin tones in second language learners

Previous studies have shown that a word’s phonological similarity to other words (i.e., phonological neighborhood) can influence its recognition. However, most research concerning lexical representations has been observed for neighbors based on segmental overlap, and little is known about such effects with suprasegmentals such as Mandarin tones. In the present study, two experiments were conducted with forty L2 listeners and 40 native speakers to examine how tone neighborhood density influences Mandarin spoken word recognition. In Experiment 1, speed and accuracy from both groups’ performance in an auditory lexical task were influenced by tone neighborhood density (i.e., fewer words were recognized from dense tone neighborhoods than from sparse tone neighborhoods). However, L2 listeners’ performance was inferior to native listeners’. In Experiment 2, form priming patterns showed that reliable facilitation was observed only when the prime and the target were identical, while monosyllabic Mandarin words differing only in tone failed to speed the response to the target. In addition, only L2 listeners showed an increase in RTs to respond to the target when it was preceded by tone overlap primes. The results of these experiments demonstrate that tone neighborhood is an important factor in L2 Mandarin spoken word recognition.Previous studies have shown that a word’s phonological similarity to other words (i.e., phonological neighborhood) can influence its recognition. However, most research concerning lexical representations has been observed for neighbors based on segmental overlap, and little is known about such effects with suprasegmentals such as Mandarin tones. In the present study, two experiments were conducted with forty L2 listeners and 40 native speakers to examine how tone neighborhood density influences Mandarin spoken word recognition. In Experiment 1, speed and accuracy from both groups’ performance in an auditory lexical task were influenced by tone neighborhood density (i.e., fewer words were recognized from dense tone neighborhoods than from sparse tone neighborhoods). However, L2 listeners’ performance was inferior to native listeners’. In Experiment 2, form priming patterns showed that reliable facilitation was observed only when the prime and the target were identical, while monosyllabic Mandarin words dif...

The role of speaker identification in auditory and visual speech recognition: Evidence from twin speech

Understanding the content of speech does not require identifying speaker voices. Similarly, identifying speaker voices does not require understanding the content of speech. However, ample evidence has shown that speaker voices affect auditory word recognition. Familiarity with speaker voices also affects audiovisual speech recognition. This study examines whether familiarity with twin speakers, who have highly similar voices, affects the magnitude of form priming and that of the McGurk effect. In Experiment 1, participants who were familiar or unfamiliar with the twin speakers performed lexical decision and voice discrimination on pairs of auditory words that were repeated or unrelated. In Experiment 2, the same participants were asked to identify syllables in which auditory and visual information was congruent or incongruent (e.g., auditory /ba/ with visual /ga/). The auditory and visual information was also mixed between the speakers. Experiment 1 showed that familiarity resulted in reduced priming in voice discrimination but not lexical decision. Experiment 2 showed that familiarity did not result in reduced McGurk effect. It appears that the benefit of familiarity in processing auditory and visual speech is compromised when processing highly similar voices. [Work supported by Ohio University PURF and CHSP Student Research Grant.]

Does visual letter similarity modulate masked form priming in young readers of Arabic?

We carried out a masked priming lexical decision experiment to study whether visual letter similarity plays a role during the initial phases of word processing in young readers of Arabic (fifth graders). Arabic is ideally suited to test these effects because most Arabic letters share their basic shape with at least one other letter and differ only in the number/position of diacritical points (e.g., ض - ص ;ظ - ط ;غ - ع ;ث - ت - ن ب ;ذ - د ;خ - ح - ج ;ق - ف ;ش - س ;ز - ر). We created two one-letter-different priming conditions for each target word, in which a letter from the consonantal root was substituted by another letter that did or did not keep the same shape (e.g., خدمة - حدمة vs. خدمة - فدمة). Another goal of the current experiment was to test the presence of masked orthographic priming effects, which are thought to be unreliable in Semitic languages. To that end, we included an unrelated priming condition. We found a sizable masked orthographic priming effect relative to the unrelated condition regardless of visual letter similarity, thereby revealing that young readers are able to quickly process the diacritical points of Arabic letters. Furthermore, the presence of masked orthographic priming effects in Arabic suggests that the word identification stream in Indo-European and Semitic languages is more similar than previously thought.

Action and perception in literacy: A common-code for spelling and reading.

There is strong evidence that reading and spelling in alphabetical scripts depend on a shared representation (common-coding). However, computational models usually treat the two skills separately, producing a wide variety of proposals as to how the identity and position of letters is represented. This article treats reading and spelling in terms of the common-coding hypothesis for perception-action coupling. Empirical evidence for common representations in spelling-reading is reviewed. A novel version of the Start-End Competitive Queuing (SE-CQ) spelling model is introduced, and tested against the distribution of positional errors in Letter Position Dysgraphia, data from intralist intrusion errors in spelling to dictation, and dysgraphia because of nonperipheral neglect. It is argued that no other current model is equally capable of explaining this range of data. To pursue the common-coding hypothesis, the representation used in SE-CQ is applied, without modification, to the coding of letter identity and position for reading and lexical access, and a lexical matching rule for the representation is proposed (Start End Position Code model, SE-PC). Simulations show the model's compatibility with benchmark findings from form priming, its ability to account for positional effects in letter identification priming and the positional distribution of perseverative intrusion errors. The model supports the view that spelling and reading use a common orthographic description, providing a well-defined account of the major features of this representation. (PsycINFO Database Record