title: Superset versus substitution-letter priming: an evaluation of open-bigram models.
abstract: In recent years, a number of models of orthographic coding have been proposed in which the orthographic code consists of a set of units representing bigrams (open-bigram models). Three masked priming experiments were undertaken in an attempt to evaluate this idea: a conventional masked priming experiment, a sandwich priming experiment (Lupker & Davis, 2009) and an experiment involving a masked prime same-different task (Norris & Kinoshita, 2008). Three prime types were used, first-letter superset primes (e.g., wjudge-JUDGE), last-letter superset primes (e.g., judgew-JUDGE) and standard substitution-letter primes (e.g., juwge-JUDGE). In none of the experiments was there any evidence that the superset primes were more effective primes, the prediction made by open-bigram models. In fact, in the second and third experiments, first-letter superset primes were significantly worse primes than the other two prime types. These results provide no evidence for the existence of open-bigram units. They also suggest that prime-target mismatches at the first position produce orthographic codes that are less similar than mismatches at other positions. Implications for models of orthographic coding are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lupker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Yu Ji
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Jason R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bristol.
authors.forename: Colin J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D060865:Repetition Priming / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult