Masked priming for prefixed words with bound stems: Does submit prime permit?

Abstract

Masked priming effects for prefixed words sharing a bound stem (e.g., submit-PERMIT) are compared with priming effects for semantically transparent prefixed words (e.g., fold-UNFOLD). In three experiments, priming effects were obtained for both types with no significant difference between them. These results suggest that semantic transparency is not critical for priming in this paradigm. However, in Experiment 2, priming in the bound stem condition did not differ significantly from an orthographic control condition (e.g., shallow-FOLLOW). In Experiment 3, form priming effects were suppressed by the use of close distractors and a longer prime duration. The morphological effects remained unaltered, indicating that they were not a product of orthographic overlap. The magnitude of bound stem priming was also found to be related to productivity of the stem.