Zimmerman, R. , Geller, J. & Gomez, P.
DePaul University
Interactive-Activation based models of lexical access predict that a word prime inhibits processing of an orthographically related target item in the lexical decision task (LDT). Although results supporting this hypothesis have been found, many other studies have failed to find the predicted inhibitory effects of related word primes. In Experiment 1 (n=124), we presented subjects with a standard LDT, and we failed to find inhibition with related word primes. In Experiment 2 (n=44), we manipulated the duration of several primes during the LDT to draw attention to the temporal location of the prime. Doing so increased the magnitude of other predicted effects, and yielded the expected inhibition only for related low frequency word primes. In Experiment 3 (n=23) we used a LDT while recording pupil dilation along with RT's. Again, while we obtained the expected frequency effects, neither RT nor pupil dilation indicated inhibition or increased arousal/processing of related word primes. Our results emphasize the difficulty in obtaining inhibition of related word primes.