title: Automatic and attentional priming in young and older adults: reevaluation of the two-process model.
abstract: Three experiments addressed the distinction between automatic and attentional mechanisms underlying semantic priming effects by factorially crossing prime-target relatedness, expectancy, and SOA in a task (pronunciation) that minimized postlexical checking processes. Also, possible age-related (young vs. older adults) differences in the automatic and attentional mechanisms were addressed. Across all experiments there was evidence of a Relatedness x Expectancy x SOA interaction, which is inconsistent with the notion of independent automatic and attentional mechanisms in semantic priming and the notion of a self-encapsulated modular lexicon. The results also indicated age-related differences in the build-up of the expectancy effect across SOAs when the prime was visually available for only 200 ms, independently of the prime-target SOA (Experiments 1 and 3), but not when the prime was visually available throughout the SOA (Experiment 2).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Balota
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cheney
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D011930:Reaction Time