EFFECTS OF SEMANTIC AND ASSOCIATIVE RELATEDNESS ON AUTOMATIC PRIMING

Models of automatic priming of word identification can be divided into those based on associative relations (e.g., spreading activation) and others based on semantic similarity (e.g., distributed models). In th ree experiments, associative relatedness was manipulated by presenting asymmetrically associated word pairs in both their forward and backwa rd directions. Priming was comparable in both directions for semantica lly related pairs. Furthermore, priming was not obtained in either dir ection when pairs were associated but not semantically similar. The ab sence of inhibition, practice, and nonword ratio effects suggested tha t priming was not the result of nonsemantic, controlled processes. The se results indicate that semantic similarity, and not associative rela tedness, is both necessary and sufficient to produce automatic priming . (C) 1998 Academic Press.