Sequential effects in naming: A time-criterion account

S. J. Lupker, P. Brown, and L. Colombo (1997) reported that target naming l atencies are strongly affected by the difficulty of the other stimuli in a trial block, an effect they attributed to readers' strategic use of a time criterion to guide responding. In the present research, the authors asked w hether there are also trial-by-trial ("sequential") effects by examining na ming latency as a function of the difficulty of the preceding stimulus. In Experiment 1, both nonwords and high-frequency regular words were named mor e rapidly following a word than a nonword. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 were par allel experiments involving a variety of stimulus types (e.g., high- and lo w-frequency inconsistent words, easy and hard nonwords). In all cases, simi lar sequential effects were observed (i.e., all stimulus types had shorter latencies following an easier-to-name than a harder-to-name stimulus). In t erms of the time-criterion account, criterion placement appears to be affec ted by the relative difficulty of the preceding stimulus in a way that is i ndependent of stimulus type.