This study examined the effects that the acoustic-phonetic structure of a stimulus exerts on the processes by which lexical candidates compete for activation. An auditory lexical decision paradigm was used to investigate whether shortening the VOT of an initial voiceless stop consonant in a real word results in the activation of the lexical-semantic network of its voiced competitor, i.e., does ...

A well-known asymmetry exists in the bilingual masked priming literature in which lexical decision is used: namely, masked primes in the dominant language (L1) facilitate decision times on targets in the less dominant language (L2), but not vice versa. In semantic categorization, on the other hand, priming is symmetrical. In Experiments 1–3 we confirm this task difference, finding robust masked...

Processing of semantic information in language comprehension has been suggested to be modulated by attentional resources. Consequently, cognitive load would be expected to reduce semantic priming, but studies have yielded inconsistent results. This study investigated whether cognitive load affects semantic activation in speech processing in older adults, and whether this is modulated by individ...

Information storage in semantic memory was investigated by looking at automatic priming effects for new associations in two experiments. In the study phase, word pairs were presented in a paired-associate learning task. Lexical decision and perceptual identi® cation were used to examine priming effects during and after the study phase. T here was automatic priming for new associations. T he pri...

Word-priming studies have suggested that the associative disturbance of schizophrenia may reflect aberrant spread of activation through the lexicon of the brain. To explore this, we examined lexical activation using a semantic word-priming paradigm coupled with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also wanted to determine whether brain activation to this paradigm correlated with rel...

An attentional blink (AB) paradigm was used to directly compare semantic and repetition priming for reported words versus missed words. Three target words (T1, T2, T3) were embedded in a rapidly presented stream of non-word distractors for report at the end of each trial. Whereas T1 was not related to either T2 or T3, T2 and T3 could be unrelated words, semantically related words, or identical....

Cross-modal semantic priming with partial auditory primes seems a good technique to assess spoken-word recognition, because it allows tracking the activation of multiple word candidates. However, previous research using this technique has found inconsistent results. First, a priming experiment is reported that addresses this technique’s validity. Results show that semantic priming is not observ...

Recent evidence suggests that top-down attention facilitates unconscious semantic processing. To clarify the role of attention in unconscious semantic processing, we traced trajectories of the computer mouse in a semantic priming task and scrutinized the extent to which top-down attention enhances unconscious semantic processing in four different stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA: 50, 200, 500, or...

BACKGROUND Previous research has yielded evidence for enhanced semantic priming in formal thought-disordered schizophrenia patients, a result that fits well with the hypothesis of disinhibited processes of spreading activation in this population. OBJECTIVE The current study examined whether hyper priming among schizophrenia patients is an outcome of further spreading of activation of a node o...