Priming in sentence processing: Intralexical spreading activation, schemes, and situation models

A series of eye-tracking experiments investigated priming in natural langua ge understanding. Intralexical spreading activation accounts of priming: pr edict that the response to a target word will be speeded (i.e., primed) whe n strong associates appear prior to the target. Schema-based priming accoun ts predict that priming will occur when the target word is a component of a n activated schema or script. Situation model accounts predict that priming will occur when a target word can be integrated easily into an evolving di scourse representation. In separate experiments, we measured the effect of associated words, synonyms, and identity primes on processing times for sub sequently encountered target,words. Our designs crossed prime type (e.g.. s ynonyms vs. unassociated words) with semantic plausibility (i.e.. the targe t word was a plausible vs. an implausible continuation of the sentence). Th e results showed that identity primes, bur nor associates or synonyms, prim ed target words in early measures of processing like first fixation and gaz e duration. Plausibility effects tended to emerge in later measures of proc essing (e.g., on total reading time), although some evidence was obtained f or early effects of semantic plausibility. We propose that priming in natur alistic conditions is nor caused bq intralexical spreading activation or ac cess to precompiled schemas.