Pure mediated priming: a retrospective semantic matching model.

Mediated priming refers to the activation of a target (e.g., stripes) by a prime (e.g., lion) that is related indirectly via a connecting mediator (e.g., tiger). In previous mediated priming studies (e.g., McNamara & Altarriba, 1988), the mediator was associatively related to the prime. In contrast, pure mediated priming (e.g., spoon --> can) lacks a strong association between prime and mediator (e.g., spoon --> soup) and between mediator and target (e.g., soup --> can). This study establishes the existence of pure mediated priming and assesses which semantic priming model (spreading activation, compound-cue, or semantic matching) accounts for the results. Pure mediated priming occurred in 3 experiments across double and standard lexical decision tasks. However, such priming did not occur in a continuous lexical decision task, which precludes strategic processing. Overall, results indicate that a modified retrospective semantic matching model provides the best theoretical explanation of pure mediated priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).