Testing for lexical competition during reading: fast priming with orthographic neighbors.
Recent studies have found that masked word primes that are orthographic neighbors of the target inhibit lexical decision latencies (Davis & Lupker, 2006; Nakayama, Sears, & Lupker, 2008), consistent with the predictions of lexical competition models of visual word identification (e.g., Grainger & Jacobs, 1996). In contrast, using the fast priming paradigm (Sereno & Rayner, 1992), orthographically similar primes produced facilitation in a reading task (H. Lee, Rayner, & Pollatsek, 1999; Y. Lee, Binder, Kim, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 1999). Experiment 1 replicated this facilitation effect using orthographic neighbor primes. In Experiment 2, neighbor primes and targets were presented in different cases (e.g., SIDE-tide); in this situation, the facilitation effect disappeared. However, nonword neighbor primes (e.g., KIDE-tide) still significantly facilitated reading of targets (Experiment 3). Taken together, these results suggest that it is possible to explain the priming effects from word neighbor primes in fast priming experiments in terms of the interactions between the inhibitory and facilitory processes embodied in lexical competition models.
Nakayama
Mariko
M
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. mnakayama@toki.waseda.jp
Sears
Christopher R
CR
Lupker
Stephen J
SJ
D005133:Eye Movements; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011932:Reading; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception