A TRANSFER ANALYSIS OF THE REPETITION EFFECT IN THE LEXICAL AND AMBIGUITY DECISION TASKS

Two experiments were performed in an attempt to evaluate explanations of repetition priming-the facilitation observed when the same word is processed a second time in the same task. One task employed was lexica l decision (word/nonword) and the other was ambiguity decision (ambigu ous/unambiguous). In the first experiment, transfer on a lexical decis ion task was measured following either a lexical decision or an ambigu ity decision. When the identical lists were processed in the first pha se for lexical and ambiguity decision, equal repetition effects were o btained on lexical decision. However, when the ambiguity task was pres ented without nonwords, no repetition priming occurred. In a second ex periment, the within-task repetition effect was large for the ambiguit y decision, whereas no transfer was obtained from lexical decision to ambiguity decision. The results were interpreted as being consistent w ith a transfer-appropriate processing account of repetition priming.