TIME-COURSE OF FORGETTING EXHIBITED IN REPETITION PRIMING OF SEMANTICCOMPARISONS

We report two studies that used a semantic comparison task to investig ate forgetting in repetition priming over various delay intervals. Exp eriment 1 investigated the form of forgetting in priming effects (late ncy savings) over intervals up to 90 min. Logarithmic, exponential-pow er, and power forgetting functions fitted the data equally well, but t hey made different predictions about the degree of priming after longe r delay intervals. Experiment 2 tested these predictions by assessing repetition savings after an 8-day delay. A power function provided the best account of priming loss. The findings are discussed with respect to the longevity of implicit memory measures and the previously obser ved dissociations between implicit and explicit memory measures.