Phonemic, associative, and grammatical context effects with identified and unidentified primes.

Six experiments are reported that assess priming effects on lexical decision (in Serbo-Croatian) when the context is identifiable (unmasked conditions) and when it is unidentifiable due to forward masking (masked conditions). Word acceptance is slowed by a phonemically similar context that is not masked but hastened by a phonemically similar context that is masked. Word acceptance is hastened by an associatively related context that is not masked; this facilitation is somewhat diminished when the context is masked. Finally, word acceptance is hastened by a grammatically related context that is not masked but is unaffected when the grammatical context is masked. These results can be rationalized in terms of a model of the language processor that maintains the autonomy of prelexical and postlexical levels but permits interaction among prelexical components.