When is all understood and done? The psychological reality of the recognition point.

Using lexical decision, the effects of primes of different length on spoken word recognition were evaluated in three partial repetition priming experiments. Prime length was determined via gating (Experiments 1a and 2a). It was shorter than, equivalent to, or longer than the recognition point (RP), or a complete word. In Experiments 1b and 1c, priming increased with prime length and was independent of reaction time. The influence of sensory information following the RP was investigated in Experiment 2b. Latencies decreased with increasing prime length, but priming decreased only for complete words. RP and complete words have a special status. Lexical representations are activated to different degrees at the RP and at word offset.