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Associative priming in perceptual identification: effects of prime-processing requirements
J S Burt1, M B Walker, M S Humphreys
1Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia.
Memory & Cognition
|January 1, 1993
Summary
Processing instructions impact associative priming and memory. Deeper processing, like generating an associate, enhances episodic memory but not necessarily word identification priming compared to simple reading.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Experimental Psychology
Background:
- Associative priming effects are well-documented in word identification.
- The influence of prime-processing depth on associative priming and episodic memory remains an area of investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how different prime-processing instructions affect associative priming in word identification.
- To examine the impact of these instructions on episodic memory for primes.
- To explore the relationship between processing depth, priming, and memory.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted using word identification and cued-recall tasks.
- Participants were assigned to groups with varying prime-processing instructions: silent reading, silent associate generation, or asterisk-search.
- Prime-target associations varied in strength across experiments.
Main Results:
- Generating an associate led to superior episodic memory recall compared to reading or asterisk-search.
- Deeper processing (reading or generating) yielded greater accuracy benefits for related over unrelated targets in word identification than shallow processing (asterisk-search).
- Priming effects were comparable between reading and generate groups for weak associations and showed similar mispriming and inhibitory effects.
Conclusions:
- Depth of prime-processing manipulations do not uniformly affect associative priming and episodic memory.
- Associative priming in word identification may involve expectancy processes, influenced by the depth of prime processing.