Prime validity affects masked repetition priming: Evidence for an episodicresource account of priming

Masked repetition priming in the lexical decision task was found to be grea ter when prime validity, defined as the proportion of repetition versus unr elated primes, was high (0.8) rather than low (0.2). even though primes wer e displayed for only 45 or 60 ms. Prime validity effects did not obtain whe n targets varied markedly from trial to trial with respect to processing di fficulty. This variation appears to cause extensive prime recruitment even when prime validity is low. Reducing variability in target processing diffi culty restored the influence of prime validity. Prime validity effects are anticipated by an episodic account of masked priming in which a prime event creates a resource that can be recruited to aid word identification. These effects support the idea that resource recruitment is more likely to occur when the validity of the resource is high, which creates a context that su pports prime recruitment. Implications for lexical accounts of masked repet ition priming are discussed. (C) 2001 Academic Press.