Abstract
Two experiments are reported that addressed the relative involvement and nature of perceptual and conceptual priming in a semantically complex task. Both experiments investigated facilitation from repeated semantic comparison trials in which subjects decided whether two words had the same meaning (e.g.,moist damp). The first experiment compared the magnitude and persistence of perceptual and conceptual priming components. Perceptual priming effects were modest, and contrary to some previous evidence, they did not appear to be more persistent than nonperceptual priming effects. The second experiment investigated the memory processes involved when perceptual priming was eliminated through a modality change between prime and target trials. Evidence suggested that conceptual priming primarily involved memory for the meaning comparison processes rather than better access to existing memory for the stimulus words.
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This research was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Cognition Program (F49620- 93-1). The experiments were conducted at the facilities of Armstrong Laboratory in collaboration with the Learning Abilities Measurement Program.
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Woltz, D.J. Perceptual and conceptual priming in a semantic reprocessing task. Mem Cogn 24, 429–440 (1996). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200932
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200932