Priming In Word-fragment Completion Research Articles

Age and processing effects on perceptual and conceptual priming.

Explicit (declarative) memory declines with age, but age effects on implicit (nondeclarative) memory are debated. Some studies have reported null changes in implicit memory (e.g., priming in word-fragment completion, perceptual identification, category exemplar generation) with age, while others have uncovered declines. One factor that may account for these discrepancies is processing. Evidence suggests that conceptual and perceptual processes are not equally affected by ageing, yet processing requirements have varied greatly between studies. Processing may moderate age effects on priming, but no study has systematically examined this issue. This registered report presents an experiment to manipulate processing (conceptual / perceptual) during incidental encoding of words, prior to measures of perceptual (perceptual identification) and conceptual (category verification) priming. The perceptual and conceptual priming tasks were matched on all characteristics except processing, making them highly comparable. The four orthogonal conditions (perceptual encoding, perceptual test [PP]; conceptual encoding, perceptual test [CP]; perceptual encoding, conceptual test [PC]; conceptual encoding, conceptual test [CC]) were designed to clarify situations in which age effects on implicit memory emerge, which holds important practical and theoretical implications. Significant effects of Age, Test, and an Age × Processing interaction emerged. Priming was greater in young than older adults and on the perceptual than the conceptual test, but in contrast to the predictions, the age difference was only significant when prior encoding was perceptual (i.e., in the PP and CP conditions).

The sensorimotor contributions to implicit memory, familiarity, and recollection.

The sensorimotor contributions to memory for prior occurrence were investigated. Previous research has shown that both implicit memory and familiarity draw on gains in stimulus-related processing fluency for old, compared with novel, stimuli, but recollection does not. Recently, it has been demonstrated that processing fluency itself resides in stimulus-specific motor simulations or reenactment (e.g., covert pronouncing simulations for words as stimuli). Combining these lines of evidence, it was predicted that stimulus-specific motor interference preventing simulations should impair both implicit memory and familiarity but leave recollection unaffected. This was tested for words as verbal stimuli associated to pronouncing simulations in the oral muscle system (but also for tunes as vocal stimuli and their associated vocal system, Experiment 2). It was found that oral (e.g., chewing gum), compared with manual (kneading a ball), motor interference prevented mere exposure effects (Experiments 1-2), substantially reduced repetition priming in word fragment completion (Experiment 3), reduced the familiarity estimates in a remember-know task (Experiment 5) and in receiver-operating characteristics (Experiment 6), and completely neutralized familiarity measured by self-reports (Experiment 4) and skin conductance responses (Experiment 7), while leaving recollection and free recall unaffected (across Experiments 1-7). This pattern establishes a rare memory dissociation in healthy participants, that is, explicit without implicit memory or recognizing without feeling familiar. Implications for embodied memory and neuropsychology are discussed.

THE COGNATE STATUS EFFECT IN LEXICAL PROCESSING BY CHINESE-JAPANESE BILINGUALS

Two experiments examined the role of phonological overlap and form similarity on cognate status effects in Chinese-Japanese bilinguals. Experiment 1 investigated cross-script priming in word-fragment completion by subjects who were either Chinese-Japanese bilingual (22 Chinese students studying in Japan) or Japanese monolingual (56 students). The subjects studied Chinese words and then completed test fragments written in Japanese Hiragana. The transcriptions of the test fragments into Kanji characters were manipulated: identical-cognate, visually similar-cognate, or non-cognate. The results indicated that the completion rate of primed fragments increased for the identical-cognates only. A Chinese lexical decision task was carried out by bilingual subjects (18 Chinese students) in Experiment 2. The decision that items were Chinese was made faster for identical-cognates than it was for visually similar-cognates and non-cognates. The results indicate that phonological overlap is not indispensable for cognate status effect and they are consistent with the non-selective access view of bilinguals.

Perceptual and Conceptual Priming of Individual Words in Coherent Texts

This study explores implicit memory within the domain of text processing. Three experiments were designed to study priming in word-fragment completion, wordstem completion, and free association tests following presentation of target words in the context of a coherent text. In order to examine the time course of perceptual and conceptual processes we investigated the priming effects by manipulating the perceptual context in which the target words had been read and the time given to the subjects for each test-cue. Three main results emerged. First, we found a significant priming effect in the three implicit tests for words previously studied in a text. Second, the magnitude of the priming effect only varied when the task demands required perceptual and conceptual processing, as was the case with the completion tests. Third, priming effects did not depend on subjects' comprehension of the text read. These results are discussed in the framework of the transfer appropriate processing view proposed by Roediger, Weldon, and Challis (1989).

Associative Priming in Word Fragment Completion: A Dissociation Between Explicit and Implicit Retrieval Processes

Three experiments investigated associative priming in word fragment completion. In associative priming, the study word that acts as a prime is semantically related in some way to the response word that the subject must produce or respond to at test. For example, a prime might be semantically related to the solution to its paired word fragment (e.g. study “VANILLA”, solve fragment “-H-C—A-E” at test, solution is “CHOCOLATE”). Associative priming therefore differs from both repetition and conceptual priming, in which the studied primes are themselves the words that must be produced or responded to at test. In Experiment 1, associative primes were found to influence word fragment completion performance on an explicit test, but not on an implicit test. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the effects of associative primes on explicitly instructed fragment completion cannot be attributed to the specific information about cue-prime relationships that is included in the explicit instructions. Experiment 3 demonstrated that a manipulation of modality, a variable known to disrupt implicit retrieval processes, disrupts repetition priming on an explicit test, but not associative priming. The results of these three experiments suggest that whereas repetition primes are retrieved from memory by both explicit and implicit retrieval processes, associative primes are retrieved by only explicit processes. These data suggest that implicit retrieval processes are cue-dependent processes which automatically retrieve memory information that provides a good match to retrieval cues. Explicit retrieval processes are cue-independent, functioning as an intentional retrieval set to access particular categories or types of memory information.

Word frequency effects on recall, recognition, and word fragment completion tests.

In 3 experiments, the effect of word frequency on an indirect word fragment completion test and on direct free-recall and Yes-no recognition tests was investigated. In Experiment 1, priming in word fragment completion was substantially greater for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words, but free recall was unaffected. Experiment 2 replicated the word fragment completion result and showed a corresponding effect in recognition. Experiment 3 replicated the low-frequency priming advantage in word fragment completion with the set of words that P.L. Tenpenny and E.J. Shoben (1992) had used in reporting the opposite pattern in word fragment completion. Using G. Mandler's (1980) dual-process theory, the authors argue that recognition and word fragment completion tests both rely on within-item integration that influences familiarity, whereas recall hinges on elaboration that influences retrievability.

Implicit and explicit memory for compound words.

Subjects studied visually presented compound words (e.g., TOOTHPASTE, HEARTACHE) and then received a recognition, perceptual identification, or word-fragment completion test that contained old, recombined (e.g., TOOTHACHE), and partially and completely new words. False recognitions increased with the increasing number of previously studied components; however, priming in perceptual identification occurred only for old words. Priming in word-fragment completion occurred for old and recombined words. Reducing the time available to solve word fragments, from 20 sec to 5 sec, did not affect the pattern of results; it is therefore unlikely that priming for recombined words resulted from the use of a recollection-based strategy. Memory tasks that involve a conceptual component access memories that are constructed from parts; memory tasks that are primarily perceptual do not access such memories.

Cross-Language Priming in Word-Fragment Completion

Cross-language priming in word-fragment completion was investigated from the perspective of the transfer appropriate processing (TAP) framework as extended by Weldon (1991). Both proficient and beginning bilinguals were tested when study conditions were presented in mixed or unmixed lists. Spanish words were read, mentally translated, or translated and written prior to an English word fragment completion test. Consistent with the revised TAP framework, primed fragment completion increased as the number of study-activated processing components increased. For proficient bilinguals, priming was significant for items read in pure lists but not for items read in mixed lists.

The effect of proportion overlap and repeated testing on primed work fragment completion.

Subjects studied a list of words (e.g., cheetah) and received an implicit word fragment completion test (complete -h-t-h). On the test, the ratio of studied to nonstudied items (proportion overlap) was 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100%. Subjects were administered the identical test twice. Proportion overlap did not affect priming in word fragment completion, on either the first or second test. Also, the completion of studied and nonstudied fragments increased over repeated tests, but priming (the studied-nonstudied rate) remained unchanged. The proportion overlap of items between study and test does not affect performance on primed word fragment completion.

Effects of Surface Features on Word-Fragment Completion in Amnesic Subjects

Patients with amnesia resulting from alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome and elderly control patients studied a list of words in two typographies (typed and handwritten) and then received a word-fragment completion test (e.g., -ys-e-y for mystery) in which the test cues also varied in typography. Unlike the elderly control patients, the amnesic patients did not show greater priming effect when the typography at test matched that at study. The amount of typography-dependent priming was positively correlated with the score on the Wechsler Memory Scale. These results suggest that the effects of typography change on repetition priming in word-fragment completion reflect explicit recollection, and that the representation that supports repetition priming effects observed with amnesic subjects in the word-fragment completion task does not code typography information.

Level of processing affects priming in word fragment completion.

Level of processing affects priming in word fragment completion.

Level of processing affects priming in word fragment completion.

In 4 experiments, Ss studied words under learning conditions that promoted semantic or physical processing. An implicit word fragment completion test was administered (e.g., complete 1 ph t for elephant). When semantic and physical study conditions were manipulated between Ss (Experiments 1 and 3) or within Ss in a blocked fashion (Experiments 3 and 4), significant levels of processing (LOP) effects were obtained. When semantic and physical conditions were presented in a mixed list (Experiments 2, 3, and 4), the LOP effect was smaller and not significant. A survey of the literature on LOP effects in implicit perceptual tests revealed that priming in these tests was consistently greater in the semantic than physical condition, with reports of statistically significant LOP effects

Word context during initial exposure influences degree of priming in word fragment completion.

Priming in word fragment completion is revealed by the increased probability of correctly completing a fragment like _ l l_p_e when the word ellipse was seen recently. Three experiments investigated the effects on priming of manipulating the context in which the words were seen. Three principal results emerged. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that there was much more priming for words studied in a to-be-learned list than read in meaningful passages. In these same two experiments, low-frequency words were subject to more priming than were higher frequency words, regardless of context. Experiment 3 revealed more priming for words when they did not fit sensibly into connected discourse than when they did. The results suggest that context plays a critical role in priming: As a word moves from being contextually bound in meaningful discourse to being isolated in a list, its probability of priming increases.

Word context during initial exposure influences degree of priming in word fragment completion.

Word context during initial exposure influences degree of priming in word fragment completion.

Specificity and Generality of Enhanced Priming Effects for Self-Generated Study Items

In two experiments, we investigated the finding that priming effects in wordfragment completion are enhanced for self-generated study items. The first experiment showed that priming in word-fragment completion was not reliably enhanced unless words were generated at study from a fragment identical to that used at test. The second experiment showed that priming in an anagram-solving task was similarly enhanced by anagram solving at study. These generation effects, therefore, seem highly specific with respect to stimulus identity but readily generalizable with respect to task. Theoretically, these findings are consistent with both transfer-appropriate processing and memory-systems accounts of performance in implicit memory tests.

Effects of varying modality, surface features, and retention interval on priming in word-fragment completion.

Subjects in Experiment i studied a list of words under varying presentation conditions (visual or auditory) and in two typographies within the visual condition (typed or hand printed) and then received a word-fragment completion test (e.g., —YS—E—Y formystery) in which the test cues also varied in typography. The main findings were that (1) priming occurred for all study items, relative to nonstudied items, but greater priming occurred for visual than for auditory presentation, and (2) performance in the visual conditions was better when typographies matched between study and test than when the typographies mismatched, but only for words studied in hand-printed form. These findings were generally replicated when the test was delayed 1 week, although priming declined across this retention interval (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3 subjects studied words that were either in focus or blurred and showed greater priming when test fragments were presented in the same manner as at study. Priming in the word-fragment completion task depends on matching surface characteristics of items between study and test and exemplifies the requirement of performing similar mental operations at study and test for maximizing performance (transfer-appropriate processing).