Automatic retrieval of new associations under shallow encoding conditions

In two experiments during the study phase participants read unrelated context-target word pairs presented below a line drawing of the context word. During test the strong cue group was presented with context words, line drawings, and stems of target words. The line drawings were not presented in the weak cue group. Stems were paired with the same context words as at study (intact), paired with different context words (recombined), or corresponded to unstudied words (control). In Experiment 1 participants were instructed to complete stems with the first word that came to mind (indirect). The priming effect for new associations was twice as large in the strong cue group. In Experiment 2 the process dissociation procedure was applied and participants completed stems with studied words (inclusion) or with unstudied words (exclusion). Results indicated that consciously controlled and automatic retrieval processes mediated the associative effect in both groups.