Analogical priming in a world naming task

Analogical priming in a word naming task Robert G. Morrison and Keith J. Holyoak Barbara A. Spellman University of California, Los Angeles Department of Psychology; Franz Hall Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563 USA (morrison@psych.ucla.edu) University of Virginia Department of Psychology; 102 Gilmer Hall Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA Introduction Research on semantic memory has often tacitly treated se- mantic relations as simple conduits for spreading activation between associated object concepts, rather than as integral components of semantic organization (e.g., Quillian, 1968). Yet conceptual relations, and the role bindings they impose on the objects they relate, are central to such cognitive tasks as discourse comprehension, inference, problem solving, and analogical reasoning (see Holyoak & Thagard, 1995, for review). The present study addresses the question of whether semantic relations and their bindings can influence access to semantic memory. Method The experiment we report investigated whether, and under what conditions, presenting a prime pair of words linked by one of 10 common semantic relations would facilitate proc- essing of a target pair of words linked by the same relation . For instance, the prime pair bird/nest is bound by the se- mantic relation “lives in”. If bird/nest is presented as a prime pair then naming bear/cave should be faster relative to a target pair bound by a different relation , (e.g., ra- zor/shave—“used to”). Primes and targets were presented as shown in Figure 1. In Experiment 1a participants were in- structed to read each word silently as it appeared and then to say out loud the word printed in all capital letters. Naming latencies were measure from the time the second word in the target pair appeared. In Experiment 1b, participants were also instructed to “note and use” the semantic relations. Results and Discussion No effect was observed when participants merely read the prime pair (F(1,27) < 1); however, under instructions to note and use the semantic relations, participants were sig- nificantly faster at naming target pairs after same relation primes ( M = 833 ms) than after different relation primes ( M = 847 ms), F (1, 27) = 4.45, p < . 05 and F (1, 119) = 5.50, p < . 05 in the item analysis. Although the full set of conditions under which analogi- cal priming may occur remains unclear, we have shown the importance of instructions when facilitation is achieved by a single same relation pair of words. McKoon and Ratcliff (1995) have demonstrated a similar effect through the con- text of target words; however, it is yet unclear whether the version of the effect obtained in their study may be the re Figure 1: Analogical priming naming task sult of an implicit strategic set similar to that imposed by our instructions. Although many questions about the nature of analogical priming remain unanswered, the phenomenon may prove central in providing theoretical linkage between basic mechanisms for accessing semantic memory and mechanisms for comprehension and reasoning. Acknowledgments This research was supported by NSF Grant SBR-9729023. We thank Sondra Bland for creating a pilot version of the naming task, Krystal Long for excellent technical assistance, and Bao Truong, Ofilio Vigil, and Tannaz Sassoni for run- ning participants. References Holyoak, K. J., & Thagard, P. (1995). Mental leaps: Analogy in creative thought . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. McKoon, G. , & Ratcliff, R. (1995). Conceptual combina- tions and relational contexts in free association and in priming in lexical decision and naming. Psychonomic Bull e tin & Review , 2 , 527-533. Quillian, M. R. (1968). Semantic memory. In M. Minsky (Ed.), Semantic information processing . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.