Modality-specificity effects in priming of visual and auditory word-fragment completion.

In this study, the researchers examined modality-specificity effects in priming of visual and auditory word-fragment completion by the presentation of visual or auditory primes. In 2 experiments, within-modality priming and cross-modality priming were observed, with greater priming observed in the within-modality conditions. The prime was presented in a word list in Experiment 1 and either presented or inferred in priming sentences in Experiment 2. Inferring a target that was not actually presented in the sentences resulted in priming of fragment completion but not in modality specificity. These results, coupled with comparisons to explicit cued fragment completion, support the interpretation that priming of word-fragment completion is owing to both a perceptual and a nonperceptual component. This latter component may be different than the conceptual processes used for explicit memory, which did show modality specificity for inferred targets.