Memory & Cognition 1977, Vol, 5 (3), 335-339 Semantic facilitation without association in a lexical decision task IRA FISCHLER University ofFlorida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 Subjects were shown pairs of letter strings and had to decide as quickly as possible whether both strings were words. The word pairs included associates (e.g., cat-dog), words not normatively associated that had been rated by other subjects as semantically similar (e.g., nurse-wife), and unrelated control pairs (e.g.. bread-stem). Both associates and semantically related pairs were responded to more quickly than were the corresponding control pairs. The magnitude of the facilitation for the associates appeared to be related more to the semantic similarity ratings than to measures of either direct or indirect associative strength. It was concluded that the encoding of a word can be facilitated by the prior processing of a semantically related word. In a lexical decision task, the subject is asked to or successively (Meyer, Schvaneveldt, & Ruddy, Note I), decide whether or not a given stimulus is a word, Meyer and when subjects are given only a single associate after and Schvaneveldt (1971) have shown that latency to a series of unrelated items (Fischler, 1977; cf. Neeley, decide that two presented items were both words was in press). Finally, the facilitation is maintained when the shorter if the second word was a primary associate second item is presented only 100 msec after the first, of the first, as with the pair "bread-butter." For a and the subject has only to respond to the second item number of reasons, this association effect has been (Fischler, Note 2). This rapid onset is another charac­ influential in recent elaborations of semantic memory teristic of automatic facilitation, according to Posner theory. First, the task is at least nominally a lexical and Snyder (1975). rather than a semantic one, and the subject is not The effect of association on lexical decision time asked to access the meaning of the words, or to compare would thus appear to provide an excellent framework the words in any way. Fodor, Bever, and Garrett (1974) for investigating the role of the semantic relations have criticized the use of semantic decision tasks to between words. In fact, Meyer et al. (1975) referred investigate semantic memory, arguing that data from to the facilitation as one produced by a "semantic such tasks may be constrained more by the procedures context," and explained the effect in terms of activation used than by the structure of semantic memory. By spreading from the node in semantic memory analogy, one could sort words into those ending in corresponding to the first word of the pair, to the node vowels vs those ending in consonants, but this would corresponding to the second, increasing its availability. not mean that the lexicon is organized along this The concept of an automatic spread of activation, dimension. The use of an apparently nonsemantic originally described by Quillian (1962), has been task avoids this difficulty. incorporated into several recent models of the human Second, it appears that the effect is produced at memory system, notably Anderson (1976) and Collins the encoding stage, since degrading the stimulus and Loftus (1975). display increases the size of the facilitation (Meyer, Although a semantic interpretation of the facilitation Schvaneveldt, & Ruddy, 1975). This finding would also has been generally accepted, a consideration of the seem to minimize the role of task constraints, as well stimuli used in these experiments suggests an alternative as any verification processes which might follow explanation. Associates, by definition, are items which stimulus encoding (cf. Collins & Loftus, 1975). Third, occur as stimulus-response pairs when subjects are the facilitation seems to be produced more by what asked to respond to one word with another word. Posner and Snyder (1975) have called "automatic" Commonly, these associative links have been viewed processes than by attention or expectancy. Associates as one manifestation of the more basic semantic are responded to more quickly than are nonassociates relations between the items (e.g., Clark, 1970; Collins whether the two words are presented simultaneously & Loftus, 1975). But it has long been understood that such associations between words could arise both from semantic properties of the words themselves and We wish to thank Jon Muntz for collecting the data for from accidents of contiguity. Wundt, for example, this study, and Richard Griggs, Don Keen, and Larry Osterman for comments on an earlier version of the paper. This research distinguished between "inner" associations, which was supported in part by a grant from the University of Florida were based on semantic and logical relationships Behavioral and Social Sciences Institute. between words, and "outer" associations based on 335 336 FISCHLER contiguity and speech habits (Esper, 1973, p.98). stimulus pairs were constructed in which the two words It is possible, then, that some or all of the facilitation were not normatively associated, but had some degree produced in the lexical decision task is a result of the of semantic similarity. For example, the word "wife" "accidental" association between two items, rather than does not occur as an associate to the stimulus word any underlying semantic relationship between them. "nurse," but the words are clearly more similar Implicit attempts to distinguish various aspects semantically than are "nurse" and "mine." This of association between items in semantic judgment similarity can be characterized as a sharing of a number tasks have included work on the role of category size of semantic features (Katz & Fodor, 1963; Smith, (e.g., Landauer & Meyer, 1972) and of property Shoben, & Rips, 1974), such as [+human], [-male], frequency (e.g., Conrad, 1972), which roughly or as a certain amount of interlinking of the two correspond to manipulations of associative value and corresponding nodes in a semantic network (Collins & associative strength, respectively. In nonsemantic tasks, Loftus, 1975). If these features or links are a functional the only notable effort to distinguish semantic from aspect of the encoding of a word, then the encoding of accidental factors in association has been in extensions "nurse" should make analysis of "wife" proceed more of Underwood's (1965) false-recognition effect. In the quickly, despite the absence of any tendency for paradigm experiment, Underwood (1965) found that "nurse" to directly elicit "wife" as an associate. Thus, false alarms to a word such as "white" could be made finding a significant facilitation for pairs like "nurse­ more likely by the repeated prior presentation of an wife" in the double lexical decision task would support associate such as "black" in a continuous recognition a semantic interpretation of the facilitation initially task. A number of recent studies have used synonyms, described by Meyer and Schvaneveldt (1971). antonyms, and other associates in a false-recognition A set of associates was also included in the experi­ paradigm, and controlled for associative strength across ment in order to insure that the facilitation could be the three types of associates. Synonyms typically replicated under the conditions of presentation produce a higher rate of false alarms than do other types employed. Moreover, since the associates were selected of associates (Anisfeld & Knapp, 1968). Fillenbaum over a range of primary associate strengths, the (1969) also found a sizable increase in false alarms correlations of both associative strength and semantic for antonyms. Other studies, however, have shown the similarity with the size of the facilitation could be antonym effect to be unreliable (Grossman & Eagle, assessed. It was thought that, since the facilitation could 1970). Also, Elias and Perfetti (1973) obtained results well be due to both semantic and "accidental" factors, which seem to contradict the false alarm effect for either or both of these measures might correlate synonyms: When subjects were explicitly instructed with the reduction in latency. to think of synonyms to each test word, false alarms to synonyms actually presented later in the series were no more frequent than to control words. In fact, the METHOD instructions produced better overall performance Subjects compared to a group receiving no instructions. These Twenty-four undergraduates at the University of Florida results suggest that the false-recognition effects reflect participated in the experiment as a part of the introductory a good deal more than the automatic activation of psychology course requirements. responses. Apparatus The procedure of controlling for associative factors An Iconix tachistoscope and four-field exposure box were by equating associative strength in the above studies used to present the stimuli and record latencies. Three telegraph also creates several problems. While Grossman and keys located near the subject's right hand were arranged in a Eagle (1970) found that associative strength was small are, with about 3 em between each key. During a trial, the subject would rest the forefinger of his right hand on the unrelated to false alarm rate, Mueller, Yadrick, Pavur, center key, and respond by moving that finger left or right to and Adkins (1975) reported a significant effect of depress the appropriate outer key. associative strength within each of their word classes. Since there are apparently consistent differences Stimulus Materials