Yap Melvin J, Tse Chi-Shing, Balota David A
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore.
J Mem Lang. 2009 Oct 1;61(3):303. doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2009.07.001.
Word frequency and semantic priming effects are among the most robust effects in visual word recognition, and it has been generally assumed that these two variables produce interactive effects in lexical decision performance, with larger priming effects for low-frequency targets. The results from four lexical decision experiments indicate that the joint effects of semantic priming and word frequency are critically dependent upon differences in the vocabulary knowledge of the participants. Specifically, across two Universities, additive effects of the two variables were observed in participants with more vocabulary knowledge, while interactive effects were observed in participants with less vocabulary knowledge. These results are discussed with reference to Borowsky and Besner's (1993) multistage account and Plaut and Booth's (2000) single-mechanism model. In general, the findings are also consistent with a flexible lexical processing system that optimizes performance based on processing fluency and task demands.
词频和语义启动效应是视觉单词识别中最稳定的效应之一，人们普遍认为这两个变量在词汇判断表现中会产生交互作用，低频目标的启动效应更大。四项词汇判断实验的结果表明，语义启动和词频的联合效应严重依赖于参与者词汇知识的差异。具体而言，在两所大学中，词汇知识较多的参与者中观察到这两个变量的相加效应，而词汇知识较少的参与者中观察到交互作用。这些结果将参照博罗夫斯基和贝斯纳（1993年）的多阶段理论以及普劳特和布斯（2000年）的单机制模型进行讨论。总体而言，这些发现也与一个灵活的词汇处理系统相一致，该系统基于处理流畅性和任务需求来优化表现。
