When nonwords activate semantics better than words

We conducted a strong test of the idea that visual word processing and the activation of a printed word's meaning proceeds at a rate scaled by the tem poral evolution of a unique and stable phonological code. Using the lexical decision task, and readers fluent in the two alphabets of Serbo-Croatian, we compared the priming of a target word such as automat by the semanticall y related word ROBOT and by the nonword ROBOT. Whereas the Serbo-Croatian w ord ROBOT can support two phonological codes, /robot/ and /robot/, the nonw ord ROBOT composed by illegally mixing Roman and Cyrillic letters can suppo rt only the phonological code /robot/, that corresponding to the word whose meaning is related to automat's. At a prime duration of 35 ms, the lexical decision on the target automat was facilitated by ROBOT but not by ROBOT. At a prime duration of 125 ms, the word ROBOT was the more effective prime. One consequence of phonology's leading role in visual word recognition is that a nonword can sometimes activate a given word's meaning better than th e word itself. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.