PROCESSING FACILITATION IN A LEXICAL DECISION TASK

A cost-benefit and a speed-accuracy analysis of semantic priming in a lexical decision task provided information relevant to the automatic/conscious distinction as well as to the operation of discriminability, criterion bias, and response bias in the facilitation. In both studies half the cues were neutral and half were words, of which 80% were valid and 20% invalid. In Exp I with 79 right-handed undergraduates, cue time, a between-groups factor, was either 200, 300, 400, 500, or 700 msec. Valid cues produced facilitation in reaction time at cue times as short as 400 msec. Invalid cues produced inhibition at cue times as short as 200 msec. Exp II (6 undergraduates) used a response-signal technique to collect information about the speed-accuracy trade-off in a lexical decision task. Cues were always presented for 800 msec; targets were variably presented within S for either 100, 200, 300, 450, or 600 msec. The experiments indicate that discriminality, criterion bias, and response bias are integrated in producing facilitation, but simple applications of criterion bias or response bias alone do not adequately explain the facilitation effect. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.