REPETITION PRIMING IN AN AUDITORY LEXICAL DECISION TASK - EFFECTS OF LEXICAL STATUS

The effect of lexical status on the time course of repetition priming was examined in an auditory lexical decision task. Words and nonwords were repeated at lags of 0, 1, 4, and 8 items (Experiment 1A) and 0, 2 , 4, and 8 items (Experiment 1B). The pattern of repetition effects di ffered for words and nonwords in that repetition priming for nonwords at lag 0 was significantly greater than for words. The magnitude of th is effect decreased when one or more items intervened. A second experi ment, replicating Experiment 1A with visual presentation, clarified th at the greater magnitude of repetition priming for nonwords at lag 0 i s unique to the auditory modality. This finding suggests that in the c ourse of forming a stable perceptual representation, the details of th e acoustic/phonological information of an auditory stimulus are more r eadily available for nonwords than for words. The capacity to carry th is phonological information is limited, however, and can only be maint ained until another stimulus is encountered.