Abstract

Three experiments examined the influences of word fragment exposure time and completion time on the availability of perceptual and conceptual processes in word fragment completion priming. In Experiment 1, with visual words and auditory words as primes, word fragment exposure time and completion time were manipulated as follows: 500 ms - 2 s, 500 ms - 4 s, 500 ms - 8 s, 2 s - 2 s, and 8 s - 8 s. Cross-modal priming was not obtained only at the short exposure and completion time(500 ms - 2 s). In Experiment 2, with physically processed words and semantically processed words as primes, effects of level of processing was not obtained at the same short exposure and completion time, but was obtained at the long exposure and completion time(8 s - 8 s). In Experiment 3, with read words and generated words as primes, read words produced more priming than generated words at the short exposure and completion time, but the advantage of read words was not obtained at the long exposure and completion time. At the short exposure and completion time, only perceptual information was available, and conceptual information became available at the longer exposure and completion time. These results suggest that relative contributions of perceptual and conceptual processes are influenced by the retrieval manipulation both of fragment exposure time and completion time(cf. Weldon, 1993).