The effects of word association and meaning frequency in a cross-modal lexical decision task: Is the priming due to "semantic" activation?

Abstract The effects of priming by ambiguous, auditorily presented word primes were examined. In related conditions, primes were followed by either associatively related or semantically related but associatively unrelated targets. When the targets were presented at prime offset (Experiment 1), priming effects were observed only for associatively related targets, independent of meaning frequency (i.e., whether the target was related to the dominant or subordinate meaning of the ambiguous prime). When the targets were presented after a 700 ms delay (Experiment 2), however, priming effects were observed only for targets related to the prime's dominant meaning, regardless of the nature of the prime-target relation. These results raise the strong possibility that previously reported differences in the nature of priming effects that had been ascribed to meaning frequency might actually be due to differences in associative strength. These results are discussed in terms of Fodor's (1983; 1990) "anti-semantic" modularity view. It is a well-established finding that the speed of responding to a target word can be influenced by the nature of the preceding context. For example, when a target word is semantically associated to the prime word that precedes it (e.g., NURSE-DOCTOR, where DOCTOR is the target and NURSE is the prime), responses to the target are facilitated relative to when target and prime are unassociated (e.g., BUTTER-DOCTOR) (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971; Neely, 1977; Lupker, 1984; Seidenberg, Waters, Sanders, & Langer, 1984; see Neely, 1991, for a review). This effect has come to be referred to as "semantic priming" and, as Neely (1991) has documented, the basic semantic priming paradigm has proven to be quite useful for investigating a number of issues important to cognitive psychologists. It was also the primary tool used in the present investigation. The main focus of the present investigation was the process of lexical ambiguity resolution. That is, some words in English are ambiguous (e.g., HORN, BANK) in the sense that they possess more than one meaning, yet readers and listeners report little difficulty understanding the intended meaning of these words. The process by which readers and listeners accomplish this has received a great deal of attention in recent years. One technique often used in studying this process is a specific version of the semantic priming paradigm referred to as cross-modal priming. In this paradigm, an ambiguous word prime is presented auditorily and the target is presented visually. The subjects' task is to respond to the target, typically by making a lexical decision. If a target word is related to the activated meaning(s) of an ambiguous word prime, a semantic priming effect should be observed. By noting what types of prime-target relations produce semantic priming effects, this paradigm presumably enables one to gain information about the nature of the meaning retrieval process for auditorily-presented ambiguous words. In one of the first studies of this nature, Swinney (1979) used the cross-modal priming paradigm to examine the effects of sentential context on the process of resolving lexical ambiguity. Ambiguous words (e.g., BUG) were embedded in a spoken passage and presented through headphones. A visual target was then presented either at the offset of the ambiguous word or three syllables later. The critical targets were words related to the contextually appropriate meaning of the ambiguous words (e.g., INSECT) or words related to the contextually inappropriate meaning of the ambiguous words (e.g., sPY). Swinney found a "multiple priming effect" when the targets were presented at the offset of the ambiguous word (the "offset condition"). That is, lexical decision latencies to both contextually appropriate and contextually inappropriate targets were facilitated relative to unrelated control targets. When the targets were presented three syllables after the offset of the ambiguous word prime, however, a "selective priming effect" was observed: Facilitation was found only for the targets related to the contextually appropriate meaning of the ambiguous word. …