Repetition of Semantic Comparisons: Temporary and Persistent Priming Effects

摘要

Two experiments tested the involvement of both abstract semantic memoryrepresentations and instance specific memory for feature encoding in repetition effects for a semantic processing task. Experiment 1 showed that a relatively small amount of facilitation (10%-15%) was attributable to memory for instance specific features (typography) of repeated trials. Although small, this effect showed no decay over repetition lags investigated, suggesting persistent memory for encoded features or encoding processes. Experiment 2 showed that facilitation for semantically related repetitions was short-lived compared with facilitation for lexically exact repetitions. This suggested that priming of abstract semantic memory may be involved in temporary but not persistent repetition effects. Individual differences analyses supported the conclusion that despite the increased semantic complexity of this repetition priming task over those previously used, abstract semantic memory representations were not involved in persistent repetition effects.