Associative priming in perceptual identification: effects of prime-processing requirements

Abstract

Three experiments assessed the effects of prime-processing instructions on associative priming in word identification and episodic memory for primes. In Experiment 1, groups instructed to read the prime silently or generate silently an associate of the prime showed a larger accuracy benefit for related over unrelated targets than did a group that decided whether an asterisk was to the right or left of the prime. The asterisk-search group showed a weaker repetition effect on a subsequent identification test of primes, indicating that the weaker priming in this group was a result of poorer perceptual processing. On a cued-recall test for primes, the generate goup was superior to the other goups. In Experiment 2, we found that with weak prime-target associations, priming was comparable for read and generate groups and stronger than estimated for a guessing strategy, on the basis of single predictions made from each prime by an additional group. In Experiment 3, we demonstrated that the read and generate instructions produced similar mispriming and inhibitory effects. The results suggest that the depths of prime-processing manipulations do not have parallel effects on priming and episodic memory, and that associative priming in word identification, as in other tasks, may involve an expectancy process.