title: Semantic context effects and priming in word association.
abstract: Two experiments investigated priming in word association, an implicit memory task. In the study phase of Experiment 1, semantically ambiguous target words were presented in sentences that biased their interpretation. The appropriate interpretation of the target was either congruent or incongruent with the cue presented in a subsequent word association task. Priming (i.e., a higher proportion of target responses relative to a nonstudied baseline) was obtained for the congruent condition, but not for the incongruent condition. In Experiment 2, study sentences emphasized particular meaning aspects of nonambiguous targets. The word association task showed a higher proportion of target responses for targets studied in the more congruent sentence context than for targets studied in the less congruent sentence context. These results indicate that priming in word association depends largely on the storage of information relating the cue and target.
authors: University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. rzeelenb@indiana.edu
authors: René
authors: R
authors: Zeelenberg
authors: Diane
authors: D
authors: Pecher
authors: Richard M
authors: RM
authors: Shiffrin
authors: Jeroen G W
authors: JG
authors: Raaijmakers
mesh_terms: D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D012660:Semantics; D014936:Word Association Tests