The time course of perceptual and conceptual contributions to word fragment completion priming

Two experiments examined the time course of the availability of perceptual and conceptual information in priming on the word fragment completion test. Subjects encoded primes as either visual words, auditory words, or pictures. In Experiment 1, word fragments were exposed for either 500 ms, 1 s, 5 s, or 12 s. Only the visual words produced priming at the 500-ms and 1-s exposure times. In Experiment 2, subjects were allowed up to 20 s to solve each fragment; response latencies were recorded and cumulative response curves were generated. Visually primed fragments were solved at a faster rate than either auditorily or pictorially primed fragments. The results suggest that although conceptual processing can contribute to word fragment priming, perceptual processes are recruited earlier and at a faster rate.