Relation priming in established compounds: facilitation?
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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Irrelevant Stimuli and Action Control: Analyzing the Influence of Ignored Stimuli via the Distractor-Response Binding Paradigm
Published on: May 14, 2014
Thomas L Spalding1, Christina L Gagné
1Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, P-217 Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada. spalding@ualberta.ca
Abstract:
Gagné and Spalding (Brain and Language, 90, 478-486, 2004, Journal of Memory and Language, 60, 20-35, 2009) have shown that the difficulty of interpreting an established compound (e.g., snowball) can be influenced by recent exposure to a compound with the same modifier and that this influence depends on the relation linking the constituents of the compound. For example, snowball (a ball made of snow) was processed more quickly following snowfort (a fort made of snow; same relation) than following snowshovel (a shovel for snow; different relation). In three experiments, we investigated the basis of this relation-priming effect. The results indicated that the relation-priming effect in established compounds is due to slower processing in the different-relation condition rather than to faster processing in the same-relation condition. These results pose a challenge for most models of compound-word processing.
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