An electrophysiological analysis of modality-specific aspects of word repetition

Priming effects to words are reduced when modality changes from study to te st. This change was examined here using behavioral and electrophysiological measures of priming. During the study, half of the words were presented vi sually and half auditorally; during a subsequent lexical decision test, all words were presented visually. Lexical decisions were faster for within- t han cross-modality repetitions. In contrast, modality influenced recognitio n only for low-frequency words. During lexical decision, event-related brai n potentials were more positive to studied than unstudied words (200-500 ms ). A larger and shorter duration effect was observed for within- than cross -modality repetitions (300-400 ms). This latter effect is viewed as an elec trophysiological index of modality-specific processing associated with prim ing. Results suggest that multiple events-both modality-specific and modali ty-nonspecific-underlie perceptual priming phenomena.