Abstract
A novel priming technique is applied in two experiments using an alphabetic decision and a lexical decision task to study effects of repetition, and form-related priming on letter and word recognition. The incremental priming technique consists of a gradual increase of the prime’s informational value (operationalized as prime intensity). The minimum prime-intensity level serves as a within-condition baseline for each priming condition. Thus, we can define any priming effect with respect to two baseline conditions: one is the minimum-intensity condition of the particular priming condition (within-condition baseline), and the other is a different priming condition (across-condition baseline). This double-baseline approach makes measuring of priming effects more reliable and imposes stronger constraints on our interpretations of these effects.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arguin, M., &Bub, D. N. (1994). Pure alexia: Attempted rehabilitation and its implications for interpretation of the deficit.Brain & Language,47, 233–268.
Arguin, M., & Bub, D. N. (in press). Letter priming and decision processes in classification and identification tasks.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance.
Besner, D., Coltheart, M., &Davelaar, E. (1984). Basic processes in reading: Computation of abstract letter identities.Canadian Journal of Psychology,38, 126–134.
Boles, D. B. (1992). Fast visual generation: Its nature and chronometrics.Perception & Psychophysics,51, 239–246.
Carr, T. H. (1986). Perceiving visual language. In K. R. Boff, L. Kaufman, & J. P. Thomas (Eds.),Handbook of perception and human performance (pp. 29.1–29.82). New York: Wiley.
Coltheart, M., &Rastle, K. (1994). Serial processing in reading aloud: Evidence for dual-route models of reading.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,20, 1197–1211.
Eichelman, W. H. (1970). Stimulus and response repetition effects for naming letters at two response-stimulus intervals.Perception & Psychophysics,7, 94–96.
Ferrand, L., &Grainger, J. (1992). Phonology and orthography in visual word recognition: Evidence from masked nonword priming.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,33A, 325–350.
Ferrand, L., &Grainger, J. (1993). The time course of orthographic and phonological code activation in the early phases of visual word recognition.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,31, 119–122.
Forster, K. I., &Davis, C. (1984). Repetition priming and frequency attenuation in lexical access.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,10, 680–690.
Grainger, J., &Ferrand, L. (1994). Phonology and orthography in visual word recognition: Effects of masked homophone primes.Journal of Memory & Language,33, 218–233.
Grainger, J., &Jacobs, A. M. (1991). Masked constituent letter priming in an alphabetic decision task.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology,3, 413–434.
Grainger, J., &Jacobs, A. M. (1993a). Masked partial-word priming in visual word recognition: Effects of positional letter frequency.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,19, 951–964.
Grainger, J., & Jacobs, A. M. (1993b, November).Modeling neighborhood effects in lexical decision. Paper presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Washington, DC.
Grainger, J., & Jacobs, A. M. (1994).A three-process model of lexical decision and word recognition. Paper submitted for publication.
Greenberg, S. N., &Vellutino, F. R. (1988). Evidence for processing of constituent single- and multiletter codes: Support for multilevel coding in word perception.Memory & Cognition,16, 54–63.
Humphreys, G. W., Evett, L. J., &Quinlan, P. T. (1990). Orthographic processing in visual word identification.Cognitive Psychology,22, 517–560.
Jacobs, A. M., &Grainger, J. (1991). Automatic letter priming in an alphabetic decision task.Perception & Psychophysics,49, 43–52.
Jacobs, A. M., &Grainger, J. (1992). Testing a semi-stochastic variant of the interactive activation model in different word recognition experiments.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,18, 1174–1188.
Jacobs, A. M., &Grainger, J. (1994). Models of visual word recognition: Sampling the state of the art.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,20, 1311–1334.
Jacobs, A. M., Grainger, J., & Ferrand, L. (1994, November).Facilitation and inhibition in letter and word recognition: The incremental priming technique. Poster presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis.
Jonides, J., &Mack, R. (1984). On the costs and benefit of cost and benefit.Psychological Bulletin,96, 29–44.
McClelland, J. L., &Rumelhart, D. E. (1981). An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: Part I. An account of basic findings.Psychological Review,88, 375–407.
Paap, K., Newsome, S. L., McDonald, J. E., &Schvaneveldt, R.W. (1982). An activation-verification model for letter and word recognition: The word superiority effect.Psychological Review,89, 573–594.
Posner, M. K. (1978).Chronometric explorations of the mind. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Posner, M. K., &Carr, T. H. (1992). Lexical access and the brain: Anatomical constraints on cognitive models of word recognition.American Journal of Psychology,105, 1–26.
Rosenthal, R., &Rosnow, R. L. (1985).Contrast analysis: Focused comparisons in the analysis of variance. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Segui, J., &Grainger, J. (1990). Priming word recognition with orthographic neighbors: Effects of relative prime-target frequency.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,16, 65–76.
Selfridge, O. G., &Neisser, U. (1960). Pattern recognition by machine.Scientific American,203, 60–68.
Sereno, J. A. (1991). Graphemic, associative, and syntactic priming effects at a brief stimulus onset asynchrony in lexical decision and naming.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,17, 459–477.
Trésor de la Langue Française [French language frequency counts] (1971). Nancy, France: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jacobs, A.M., Grainger, J. & Ferrand, L. The incremental priming technique: A method for determining within-condition priming effects. Perception & Psychophysics 57, 1101–1110 (1995). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208367
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208367