ISSN : 1226-9654
In a lexical decision task with two primes and a target, some studies have shown that reaction times were faster when there are two related words in the prime display when there is only one. This has been regarded as evidence that priming is additive. However, the experimental conditions for these studies varied, and converging evidence for additivity is needed. In this context, the present study examines the two following issues: (i) whether the additivity is obtained by word repetition, and (ii) whether priming occurs with the complex prime which has one related word and one unrelated word in the prime. Results from two experiments revealed that additivity is not observed in case of word repetition and complex primes do not produce the priming effect. Implications of the present study have been discussed.