Repetition, Semantic Priming, and Stimulus Quality: Implications for the Interactive-Compensatory Reading Model

Recognition latencies of single words were manipulated by repetition, degradation, or both, and the effects of context were observed. In both lexical decision and pronunciation tasks, repeated words were recognized faster than nonrepeated words yet were not any less affected by semantic context. Both inserting asterisks between a word's letters and masking slowed word recognition in comparison with a clear presentation, but only the masking manipulation showed contextual inhibition. In short, the magnitude of context effects did not always vary monotonically with the word recognition latencies in the neutral condition. Also, presentation of a word in an unrelated rather than related context did not produce larger repetition effects. The implications of these findings for Stanovich and West's (1983) and Jacoby's (1983) models are discussed.