Strategic processing in long-term repetition priming in the lexical decision task

Abstract

In a lexical decision task, faster reaction times (RTs) for old than new items is taken as evidence for an implicit memory involvement in this task. In contrast, the present study shows the involvement of both implicit and explicit memory in repetition priming. We propose a dual route model, in which lexical decisions can be made using one of two parallel processing routes: a lexical route, in which the lexical properties of the stimulus are used to determine whether it is a word or not, and a strategic route that builds on the inherent correlation between “wordness” and “oldness” in the experiment. Eliminating the strategic route by removing this correlation diminishes the priming effect at the slow end of the RT distribution, but not at the fast end. This dissociation is interpreted as evidence for the involvement of both implicit and explicit memory in repetition priming.

Keywords:

• Implicit memory
• Repetition priming
• Lexical decision

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank David Balota for helpful discussions on this project. This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (A8347) to M. M.

Notes

¹Retrieved from http://websites.psychology.uwa.edu.au/school/MRCDatabase/uwa_mrc.htm

²Retrieved from http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/~nwdb/nwdb.html

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yoav Kessler

Yoav Kessler is now at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev