Abstract
Four experiments were conducted to determine whether semantic feedback spreads to orthographic and/or phonological representations during visual word recognition and whether such feedback occurs automatically. Three types of prime-target word pairs were used within the mediated-priming paradigm: (1) homophonically mediated (e.g., frog-[toad]-towed), (2) orthographically mediated (e.g., frog-[toad]-told), and (3) associatively related (e.g., frog-toad). Using both brief (53 msec; Experiment 1) and long (413 msec; Experiment 3) prime exposure durations, significant facilitatory-priming effects were found in the response time data with orthographically, but not homophonically, mediated prime-target word pairs. When the prime exposure duration was shortened to 33 msec in Experiment 4, however, facilitatory priming was absent with both orthographically and homophonically mediated word pairs. In addition, with a brief (53-msec) prime exposure duration, direct-priming effects were found with associatively (e.g., frog-toad), orthographically (e.g., toad-told), and homophonically (e.g., toad-towed) related word pairs in Experiment 2. Taken together, these results indicate that following the initial activation of semantic representations, activation automatically feeds back to orthographic, but not phonological, representations during the early stages of word processing. These findings were discussed in the context of current accounts of visual word recognition.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Besner, D., & Smith, M. C. (1992). Models of visual word recognition: When obscuring the stimulus yields a clearer view. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 18, 468–482.
Borowsky, R., & Besner, D. (1993). Visual word recognition: A multistage activation model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 19, 813–840.
Brown, M., & Besner, D. (2002). Semantic priming: On the role of awareness in visual word recognition in the absence of an expectancy. Consciousness & Cognition, 11, 402–422.
Buchanan, L., & Besner, D. (1993). Reading aloud: Evidence for the use of a whole word nonsemantic pathway. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47, 133–152.
Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82, 407–428.
Coltheart, M., Rastle, K., Perry, C., Langdon, R., & Ziegler, J. (2001). DRC: A dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud. Psychological Review, 108, 204–256.
Davis, C., Castles, A., & Iakovidis, E. (1998). Masked homophone and pseudohomophone priming in adults and children. Language & Cognitive Processes, 13, 625–651.
de Groot, A. M. B. (1989). Representational aspects of word imageability and word frequency as assessed through word association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 15, 824–845.
den Heyer, K., Briand, K., & Dannenbring, G. L. (1983). Strategic factors in a lexical-decision task: Evidence for automatic and attentiondriven processes. Memory & Cognition, 11, 374–381.
Edwards, J. D., Pexman, P. M., & Hudson, C. E. (2004). Exploring the dynamics of the visual word recognition system: Homophone effects in LDT and naming. Language & Cognitive Processes, 19, 503–532.
Farrar, W. T., IV, Van Orden, G. C., & Hamouz, V. (2001). When SOFA primes TOUCH: Interdependence of spelling, sound, and meaning in “semantically mediated” phonological priming. Memory & Cognition, 29, 530–539.
Forster, K. I. (1976). Accessing the mental lexicon. In R. J. Wales & E. C. T. Walker (Eds.), New approaches to language mechanisms (pp. 257–287). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Forster, K. I. (1998). The pros and cons of masked priming. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 27, 203–233.
Forster, K. I., & Chambers, S. M. (1973). Lexical access and naming time. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 12, 627–635.
Forster, K. I., & Davis, C. (1984). Repetition priming and frequency attenuation in lexical access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 10, 680–698.
Forster, K. I., Davis, C., Schoknecht, C., & Carter, R. (1987). Masked priming with graphemically related forms: Repetition or partial activation? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 39A, 211–251.
Forster, K. I., & Veres, C. (1998). The prime lexicality effect: Formpriming as a function of prime awareness, lexical status, and discrimination difficulty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 24, 498–514.
Frost, R. (1995). Phonological computation and missing vowels: Mapping lexical involvement in reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 21, 398–408.
Frost, R. (1998). Toward a strong phonological theory of visual word recognition: True issues and false trails. Psychological Bulletin, 123, 71–99.
Frost, R., Ahissar, M., Gotesman, R., & Tayeb, S. (2003). Are phonological effects fragile? The effect of luminance and exposure duration on form priming and phonological priming. Journal of Memory & Language, 48, 346–378.
Gottlob, L. R., Goldinger, S. D., Stone, G. O., & Van Orden, G. C. (1999). Reading homographs: Orthographic, phonologic, and semantic dynamics. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 25, 561–574.
Grainger, J., Muneaux, M., Farioli, F., & Ziegler, J. C. (2005). Effects of phonological and orthographic neighbourhood density interact in visual word recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58A, 981–998.
Hino, Y., & Lupker, S. J. (1996). Effects of polysemy in lexical decision and naming: An alternative to lexical access accounts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 22, 1331–1356.
Hino, Y., Lupker, S. J., & Pexman, P. M. (2002). Ambiguity and synonymy effects in lexical decision, naming, and semantic categorization tasks: Interactions between orthography, phonology, and semantics. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 28, 686–713.
Hino, Y., Lupker, S. J., Sears, C. R., & Ogawa, T. (1998). The effects of polysemy for Japanese katakana words. Reading & Writing, 10, 395–424.
Humphreys, G. W., Evett, L. J., & Taylor, D. E. (1982). Automatic phonological priming in visual word recognition. Memory & Cognition, 10, 576–590.
Jared, D., Levy, B. A., & Rayner, K. (1999). The role of phonology in the activation of word meanings during reading: Evidence from proofreading and eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 219–264.
Keefe, D. E., & Neely, J. H. (1990). Semantic priming in the pronunciation task: The role of prospective prime-generated expectancies. Memory & Cognition, 18, 289–298.
Kučera, H., & Francis, W. N. (1967). Computational analysis of presentday American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
Lesch, M. F., & Pollatsek, A. (1993). Automatic access of semantic information by phonological codes in visual word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 19, 285–294.
Lukatela, G., Frost, S. J., & Turvey, M. T. (1998). Phonological priming by masked nonword primes in the lexical decision task. Journal of Memory & Language, 39, 666–683.
Lukatela, G., & Turvey, M. T. (1994a). Visual lexical access is initially phonological: 1. Evidence from associative priming by words, homophones, and pseudohomophones. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 107–128.
Lukatela, G., & Turvey, M. T. (1994b). Visual lexical access is initially phonological: 2. Evidence from phonological priming by homophones and pseudohomophones. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 331–353.
McClelland, J. L. (1979). On the time relations of mental processes: An examination of systems of processes in cascade. Psychological Review, 86, 287–330.
McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1981). An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: I. An account of basic findings. Psychological Review, 88, 375–407.
Merikle, P. M., Joordens, S., & Stolz, J. A. (1995). Measuring the relative magnitude of unconscious influences. Consciousness & Cognition, 4, 422–439.
Neely, J. H. (1976). Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Evidence for facilitatory and inhibitory processes. Memory & Cognition, 4, 648–654.
Neely, J. H. (1977). Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Role of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 106, 226–254.
Neely, J. H. (1991). Semantic priming effects in visual word recognition: A selective review of current findings and theories. In D. Besner & G. W. Humphreys (Eds.), Basic processing in reading: Visual word Recognition (pp. 264–336). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Neely, J. H., & Keefe, D. E. (1989). Semantic context effects on visual word processing: A hybrid prospective/retrospective processing theory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 24, pp. 207–248). New York: Academic Press.
Nelson, D. L., McEvoy, C. L., & Schreiber, T. A. (1998). The University of South Florida word association, rhyme, and word fragment norms. Available at w3.usf.edu/FreeAssociation/.
Nusbaum, H. C., Pisoni, D. B., & Davis, C. K. (1984). Sizing up the Hoosier Mental Lexicon: Measuring the familiarity of 20,000 words. In Research on speech perception (Progress Rep. No. 10, pp. 357–376). Bloomington: Indiana University, Speech Research Laboratory.
O’Seaghdha, P. G., & Marin, J. W. (1997). Mediated semantic-phonological priming: Calling distant relatives. Journal of Memory & Language, 36, 226–252.
Pecher, D. (2001). Perception is a two-way junction: Feedback se-mantics in word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 545–551.
Pexman, P. M., & Lupker, S. J. (1999). Ambiguity and visual word recognition: Can feedback explain both homophone and polysemy effects? Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 323–334.
Pexman, P. M., Lupker, S. J., & Hino, Y. (2002). The impact of feedback semantics in visual word recognition: Number-of-features effects in lexical decision and naming tasks. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 542–549.
Pexman, P. M., Lupker, S. J., & Jared, D. (2001). Homophone effects in lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 27, 139–156.
Pexman, P. M., Lupker, S. J., & Reggin, L. (2002). Phonological effects in visual word recognition: Investigating the impact of feedback activation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 28, 572–584.
Plaut, D. C., & Booth, J. R. (2000). Individual and developmental differences in semantic priming: Empirical and computational support for a single-mechanism account of lexical processing. Psychological Review, 107, 786–823.
Plaut, D. C., McClelland, J. L., Seidenberg, M. S., & Patterson, K. (1996). Understanding normal and impaired word reading: Computational principles in quasi-regular domains. Psychological Review, 103, 56–115.
Posner, M. I., & Snyder, C. R. R. (1975). Attention and cognitive control. In R. L. Solso (Ed.), Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium (pp. 55–85). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rastle, K., & Coltheart, M. (1999). Lexical and nonlexical phonological priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 25, 461–481.
Reimer, J. F. (2006). Developmental changes in the allocation of semantic feedback during visual word recognition. Journal of Research in Reading, 29, 194–212.
Reimer, J. F., Brown, J. S., & Lorsbach, T. C. (2001). Orthographically mediated inhibition effects: Evidence of activational feedback during visual word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 102–110.
Rubenstein, H., Garfield, L., & Millikan, J. A. (1970). Homographic entries in the internal lexicon. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 9, 487–494.
Rumelhart, D. E., & McClelland, J. L. (1982). An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: II. The contextual enhancement effect and some tests and extensions of the model. Psychological Review, 89, 60–94.
Scarborough, D. L., Cortese, C., & Scarborough, H. S. (1977). Frequency and repetition effects in lexical memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 3, 1–17.
Schneider, W., Eschman, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2002). E-Prime user’s guide. Pittsburgh: Psychology Software Tools.
Seidenberg, M. S., & McClelland, J. L. (1989). A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. Psychological Review, 96, 523–568.
Smith, M. C., & Besner, D. (2001). Modulating semantic feedback in visual word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 111–117.
Stolz, J. A., & Neely, J. H. (1995). When target degradation does and does not enhance semantic context effects in word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 21, 596–611.
Stone, G. O., Vanhoy, M., & Van Orden, G. C. (1997). Perception is a two-way street: Feedforward and feedback phonology in visual word recognition. Journal of Memory & Language, 36, 337–359.
Van Orden, G. C., & Goldinger, S. D. (1994). The interdependence of form and function in cognitive systems explains perception of printed words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 1269–1291.
Van Orden, G. C., Pennington, B. F., & Stone, G. O. (1990). Word identification in reading and the promise of subsymbolic psycholinguistics. Psychological Review, 97, 488–522.
Wike, E. L., & Church, J. D. (1976). Comments on Clark’s “The language-as-fixed-effect fallacy.” Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 15, 249–255.
Yates, M. (2005). Phonological neighbors speed visual word processing: Evidence from multiple tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 31, 1385–1397.
Zorzi, M., Houghton, G., & Butterworth, B. (1998). Two routes or one in reading aloud? A connectionist dual-process model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 1131–1161.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reimer, J.F., Lorsbach, T.C. & Bleakney, D.M. Automatic semantic feedback during visual word recognition. Memory & Cognition 36, 641–658 (2008). https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.36.3.641
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.36.3.641