Effects of Divided Attention on Identity and Semantic Priming

摘要

According to some models of lexical access visual information can directly activate semantic memory. Priming can be obtained from stimuli that are either physically identical or semantically related to the target. Our studies show that identity priming is not reduced by performance of a simultaneous auditory shadowing task. The strength of identity priming does not vary between conditions in which the relatedness of the prime provides information about the correct response (lexical decision) and conditions in which it does not (semantic classification). On the other hand, semantic priming is reduced during shadowing with lexical decision and in semantic classification. These data suggest that identity primes operate upon a visual code of the input that is not influenced by simultaneous auditory processing while semantic priming involves a system to which bout auditory and visual information has access.