Context effects in repetition priming are sense effects

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Experimental Psychology

Background:

• Repetition priming is a phenomenon where prior exposure to a word facilitates its later processing.
• The influence of contextual changes on repetition priming is not fully understood.
• Previous research has explored various factors affecting priming, but the role of semantic context requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of context in repetition priming.
• To determine if changes in context affect repetition priming.
• To examine the relationship between perceived word sense and repetition priming.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted using a lexical decision task.
• Participants were presented with target words in varying contexts.
• Priming effects were measured by response times to repeated or non-repeated words.

Main Results:

• Repetition priming was significantly reduced or eliminated when a change in context altered the perceived sense of a nonhomographic target word.
• When a change in context did not alter the perceived sense of the target word, repetition priming remained unaffected.
• The findings indicate that the perceived sense of a word plays a crucial role in repetition priming.

Conclusions:

• Perceived sense is a critical factor in repetition priming.
• A sense-specific activation framework provides a better explanation for these findings than a modified processing view.
• Contextual effects on repetition priming are mediated by changes in word meaning.