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Phonological priming in spoken word recognition with 

bisyllabic targets 

Elsa Spinelli; Juan Segui; Monique Radeau 

To cite this Article: Spinelli, Elsa, Segui, Juan and Radeau, Monique , 'Phonological 

priming in spoken word recognition with bisyllabic targets', Language and Cognitive 

Processes, 16:4, 367 - 392 

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LANGUAGE AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES, 2001, 16 (4), 367–392 

Phonological priming in spoken word recognition 

with bisyllabic targets 

Elsa Spinelli and Juan Segui 

C.N.R.S. and Université René Descartes, Paris, France 

Monique Radeau 

F.R.N.S., ULB, Brussels, Belgium 

Four experiments were carried out to examine phonological priming effects 

on bisyllabic target words. In Experiments 1a and 1b, auditorily presented 

monosyllabic word and pseudoword primes facilitated lexical decisions to 

auditorily presented bisyllabic words. This facilitation was found for primes 

overlapping the targets’ initial syllable (e.g., ‘‘ver’’ [worm in French] primed 

‘‘VERTIGE’’ [VERTIGO]) and for primes overlapping the targets’ nal 

syllable (e.g., ‘‘tige’’ [stem] primed ‘‘VERTIGE’’). Experiment 2 replicated 

the initial-overlap effect for monosyllabic word primes using a crossmodal 

(auditory-visual) method; however no facilitation was observed for naloverlap 

nor for bisyllabic primes (e.g., ‘‘verger’’ [orchard] did not facilitate 

VERTIGE). In Experiment 3, the initial overlap facilitation effect was 

replicated in a naming task. These results are interpreted in terms of 

activation and deactivation of candidates. 

An important debate in the eld of spoken word recognition concerns the 

processes underlying the mapping of sensory information from the acoustic 

input to the stored entries in the lexicon. Central to this debate are the 

dynamics of the activation and deactivation of lexical units during the 

unfolding of the acoustic signal. A useful tool to study these processes is 

the phonological priming paradigm. Phonological priming refers to the 

Requests for reprints should be addressed to Elsa Spinelli, Max Planck Institute for 

Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, PB 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands. 

e-mail: elsa.spinelli@mpi.nl 

The authors thank Ram Frost, Arthur Samuel and one anonymous reviewer for their 

helpful comments on this work. We also thank F.X. Alario, D. Dahan and D. Swingley for 

valuable discussions on this research. 

®c 2001 Psychology Press Ltd 

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pp/01690965.html DOI: 10.1080/01690960042000111


368 SPINELLI, SEGUI AND RADEAU 

inuence of a prime word on the processing of a subsequently presented 

target word that shares a number of phonemes with the prime. 

Phonological priming has been used as a measure of activation and 

competition between lexical candidates, and the effects obtained with this 

paradigm have been used to infer aspects of the dynamics of spoken word 

perception. A phonological priming effect suggests that the information 

extracted from the prime can activate the representation of the target. 

Therefore, we can determine the amount of information that is sufcient to 

access the representations of lexical units by varying the amount of overlap 

between prime and target pairs. Moreover, we can determine which 

phonological components (like phonetic features, phonemes or syllables) 

are involved in the process of contacting the lexicon, and assess the 

consequences of a mismatch between the input and the form representations 

in the processing of spoken words. 

Previous studies have found that the conditions under which phonological 

priming occurs are different for primes that overlap with the nal 

parts of targets (e.g., mean-bean) and primes that overlap with the 

beginning of targets (e.g., swan-swap) (see Goldinger, 1996; Radeau, 

Morais, & Segui, 1995, for reviews). For nal overlap, facilitation is usually 

reported for items sharing at least the rime (Emmorey, 1989; Radeau et al., 

1995; Slowiaczek, Nusbaum & Pisoni, 1987; Slowiaczek, Soltano & 

McQueen, 1997), but only if both prime and target are presented in the 

same modality (auditory). Null effects have sometimes been found 

(Emmorey, 1989), but to the best of our knowledge, inhibitory effects 

have not been reported. The fact that nal-overlap effects occur only 

under unimodal (auditory-auditory) conditions, and not with crossmodal 

presentation, has suggested that such effects do not involve the activation 

of the lexical representation of the target (Dumay, Benrass, Barriol, Colin, 

Radeau, & Besson, in press; Radeau, Segui & Morais, 1994). The 

facilitation effect may be caused by the preactivation of sublexical units. 

The fact that rime effects are insensitive to the relative frequency between 

primes and targets supports the view that these effects do not take place at 

a lexical level (Radeau et al., 1994, 1995). 

The effects observed for beginning overlap are more complex. The 

corresponding hypotheses are directly linked to temporal aspects of the 

processing of spoken words. Two distinct effects have generally been 

reported, which depend on the degree of phonological overlap. In 

monosyllabic items, when only the rst phoneme is shared by primes 

and targets, facilitatory effects have been reported (Goldinger, Luce, 

Pisoni & Marcario, 1992; Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 1992). However, it has 

been demonstrated that such effects can be attributed to strategies due to 

either the experimental task when the presentation of degraded stimuli 

might lead the participants to develop guessing strategies about the missing


PHONOLOGICAL PRIMING 369 

cues (Radeau, Morais & Dewier, 1989; Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 1992), 

the proportion of related items or the inclusion of repeated pairs in the 

experimental lits (Goldinger et al., 1992; Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 1992). 

When two or more of the two rst phonemes are shared, interference 

results rather than facilitation (Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 1992). 1 Hamburger 

and Slowiaczek (1996) found inhibition (relative to the control) in a 

condition where strategic involvement was discouraged by the means of a 

short inter-stimulus-interval (50 ms) and a low proportion of related pairs 

(21%). The logic underlying this manipulation was that strategies are more 

likely to occur when there is more time separating the primes from the 

targets (500 ms) and when there is a high proportion of related pairs. The 

null effect of these manipulations suggested that the obtained inhibition 

was not the consequence of strategic anticipations made by the participants 

(but see Goldinger, 1999). Note also that initial-overlap effects are also 

found in crossmodal designs (Radeau, 1995; Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 

1992). Such effects cannot be attributed to the preactivation of sublexical 

units that can be reused for the processing of the target; rather, it seems that 

the information from the two sources of sensory input converge in the 

amodal lexicon to induce the effect. This argues that initial-overlap effects 

result from a competition between lexical units. 

Models of spoken word recognition that postulate lateral inhibition (e.g., 

TRACE, McClelland & Elman, 1986; ShortList, Norris, 1994) can account 

for the beginning overlap inhibition effect. A possible interpretation could 

run as follows: During the processing of the prime, the target word is 

initially activated as a possible candidate because it shares some sublexical 

units (rst phonemes) with the prime. Then, as the prime unfolds and the 

acoustic information favours the prime over the target, the phonologically 

related candidate (the target) is deactivated or inhibited. In a similar way, 

during the processing of the target, both candidates are activated, but the 

prime benets from preactivation (which is not the case in the non-related 

control condition). The competition induced by the preactivation of the 

prime in the phonologically related condition is responsible for the 

inhibitory effect. Note also that the NAM (Neighbourhood Activation 

Model) proposed by Luce (1986), which does not postulate lateral 

inhibition, can also account for the beginning overlap inhibition. In 

NAM, the probability of identifying a word is calculated as a ratio between 

the activation of this word and the summed activation of its neighbours 

(words of the same length sharing all phonemes but one). A highly 

activated neighbour (e.g., a phonologically related prime) decreases the 

1 In this study, interference described a case where the three phoneme overlap condition 

was slower than the one phoneme condition but did not differ from the control.



ratio and therefore the probability of identifying the target. A similar 

mechanism is postulated in the second version of the cohort model 

(Marslen-Wilson, 1987) and could account for the results in a similar 

fashion. 

To sum up, so far, the studies on phonological priming have shown 

facilitation effects that reect either strategy (rst phoneme overlap) or the 

activation of sublexical units (rime or nal overlap effects), and inhibition 

effects that reect competition among lexical candidates (when primes and 

targets overlap from the beginning). Note that the explanation of the initial 

overlap inhibition depends on the prime containing phonetic information 

inconsistent with the target, depressing the target’s activation. The 

potential effects of primes that do not mismatch the targets are less clear. 

This would be the case if we presented only one portion of the target as 

prime (such as the rst syllable of a bisyllabic target), or an embedded 

word like ver in French (worm) as a prime for a carrier word like vertige 

(vertigo). If we present a syllable that is not a word, we expect facilitation 

as Zwitserlood (1989) and Marslen-Wilson (1990) observed in crossmodal 

priming. If the syllable prime is a word, this facilitation could interact with 

lexical competition. 

In the present study, we tried to have a better understanding of the 

nature of beginning and nal overlap priming effects. Moreover, we 

wanted to assess the consequences of matching and mismatching 

information on the activation and deactivation of lexical candidates. The 

aim of Experiments 1a and 1b was to examine phonological priming effects 

under a condition of ‘‘partial priming’’ and to assess nal and initial 

overlap effects in the same targets. In Experiment 1a, monosyllabic words 

were used as primes (ver-VERTIGE, tige-VERTIGE in French, [worm- 

VERTIGO, stem-VERTIGO]). The aim of Experiment 1b was to assess 

whether the effects found in Experiment 1a were affected by the lexicality 

of the primes. Therefore, pseudowords served as primes (cra-CRAVATE, 

vate-CRAVATE [TIE]). The aims of Experiment 2 were to evaluate 

whether initial and nal overlap effects reect the same level of processing 

by using a crossmodal presentation of the items, and also to compare 

partial (monosyllabic (ver-VERTIGE, tige-VERTIGE) and bisyllabic 

priming (verger-VERTIGE, prestige-VERTIGE [orchard-VERTIGO, 

prestige-VERTIGO]). For beginning overlap, we expected facilitation in 

the partial (monosyllabic) priming condition; but in the condition of 

bisyllabic priming, the transient activation of the target was predicted to 

disappear as the prime is being processed. Experiments 1a, 1b and 2 were 

run using the lexical decision task. In order to assess the generality of the 

effects found in Experiment 2 for partial priming, a fourth experiment was 

conducted using the naming task instead of lexical decision, and 

crossmodal presentation of the items as in Experiment 2.


Method 

EXPERIMENT 1A 


Participants. Thirty students of the University René Descartes, Paris 

V, participated in the experiment for course credit. All participants were 

native speakers of French and reported no hearing impairment. 

Stimuli and design. Thirty-six bisyllabic target words were selected 

from a French database, TLF (Trésor de la Langue Française; Imbs, 1971). 

Each of these words contained two embedded monosyllabic words as in 

‘‘vertige’’ (VERTIGO in French) which contains ‘‘ver’’ (worm) and ‘‘tige’’ 

(stem). Three monosyllabic prime words were chosen for each target. One 

corresponded to the rst syllable of the target (e.g., ver-VERTIGE, 

beginning-overlap condition); one corresponded to the second syllable of 

the target (e.g., tige-VERTIGE, nal-overlap condition) and one was not 

related to the target phonologically, morphologically, or semantically (e.g., 

brin [strand]- VERTIGE, control condition). Stimulus word frequencies 

(per million) were as follows: targets, 11; initial-overlap primes, 247; naloverlap 

primes, 420; control primes, 189. Stimulus word durations (in 

milliseconds) were as follows: targets, 688 ms; initial-overlap primes, 394 

ms; nal-overlap primes, 450 ms; control primes, 446 ms. Thirty-six 

bisyllabic pseudoword targets were constructed according to the same 

criteria as the word targets and served as catch trials. Each contained two 

embedded monosyllabic words used as primes. Thus, for each subject, 

there were 24 related pairs (12 with beginning overlap and 12 with nal 

overlap) and 12 non-related pairs for word targets, and 24 related pairs (12 

with beginning and 12 with nal overlap) and 12 non-related pairs for 

pseudoword targets. In order to reduce the proportion of related items to 

25%, the experimental lists also included 120 bisyllabic ller pairs without 

any relation between primes and targets, half the targets being words and 

the other half being pseudowords. The experimental words and pseudowords 

are listed in Appendix A. 

Procedure. All items were recorded in a soundproof room by a female 

native speaker of French (rst author) on a digital audio tape (DAT) 

recorder. Items were then digitised at a sampling rate of 44 kHz with 16-bit 

analog-to-digital conversion using the Audiomedia sound editor on a 

Macintosh II FX computer. The items were transferred to the left channel 

of the DAT recorder and stored as corresponding prime/target pairs with a 

50 ms ISI between the prime and the target. One second of silence 

separated the end of the target from the beginning of the next prime. 

Square wave clicks aligned with the onset of the experimental targets were 

stored on the right channel of the DAT recorder. The clicks were inaudible



to the participants and served to trigger the clock of a 386 PC computer 

which recorded the reaction times. Stimuli were counterbalanced across 

three experimental lists so that each participant received all conditions 

(initial, nal, control) but heard each target only once. The position of the 

targets was kept constant across the lists. The order of stimulus 

presentation was pseudo-randomised. Participants were informed that 

the rst item was always a monosyllabic word and the second item could be 

either a word or a pseudoword and were required to perform a lexical 

decision task on the second item by pressing as accurately and as quickly as 

possible one of two response buttons. They were required to press the 

« yes button with the forenger of their preferred hand. Response 

latencies and errors were collected. The duration of the session was 

approximately 20 minutes. 

Results and discussion 

Reaction times were calculated from target onset to response onset. Mean 

reaction times (RTs) and standard deviations (SD) for word targets in the 

three overlap conditions are presented in Table 1. Incorrect responses and 

RTs longer than 1500 ms were removed, excluding 6% of responses. The 

results were evaluated using one-way Anovas with 3 levels of condition 

(beginning, nal, control). F values are reported by subjects (F 1) and by 

items (F2) and all signicance tests have associated p levels of less than .05. 

Analyses of RTs revealed a main effect of overlap condition, signicant 

by subjects, (F 1(2, 58) ˆ 26.15, p < .001), and by items (F 2(2, 70) ˆ 10.73, 

p < .001). Planned comparisons yielded a signicant facilitatory effect of 

the beginning overlap condition (F 1(1, 29) ˆ 19.9, p < .001, F 2(1, 35) ˆ 

TABLE 1 

Mean reaction times in milliseconds (ms), standard deviation for correct 

responses to the word targets and percentage of errors in the three 

overlap conditions of Experiment 1a (word primes) and Experiment 1b 

(pseudoword primes), with auditory-auditory presentation 

Beginning Final Control 

Beginning 

priming 

Final 

priming 

Exp 1a 

RT (ms) 826 801 866 ‡ 40 ‡ 65 

SD (81) (74) (83) 

Errors (%) 6 6 7 

Exp 1b 

RT (ms) 776 741 816 ‡ 40 ‡ 75 

SD (65) (67) (59) 

Errors (%) 2 2 3



6.46, p < .01), as well as a facilitatory effect of the nal overlap condition 

(F 1(1, 29) ˆ 47.47, p < .001, F 2(1, 35) ˆ 20.27, p < .001). Analyses 

conducted on errors revealed no effect of overlap condition (F 1(2, 58 < 1; 

F 2 (2, 70) < 1). 

The partial priming results showed that the auditory presentation of a 

prime (e.g., ‘‘ver’’) facilitates the subsequent processing of a target word 

that begins with the same phonemes (e.g., ‘‘vertige’’), compared to an 

unrelated prime (e.g., ‘‘brin’’). Moreover, the auditory presentation of the 

end of this word (e.g., ‘‘tige’’), also facilitates its subsequent processing. 

Note that because the primes used in this experiment were not only 

fragments of the targets but also words, the question remains of whether 

the lexicality of the primes inuenced the priming effects obtained. To 

answer this question, pseudoword primes were used in Experiment 1b. 

Method 

EXPERIMENT 1B 

Participants. Thirty students of the University René Descartes, Paris 

V, participated in this experiment. They were selected in the same way as 

in Experiment 1a but were paid for their participation. 

Stimuli and design. We selected 36 bisyllabic target words from a 

French database, TLF (Trésor de la Langue Française; Imbs, 1971). 

Contrary to Experiment 1a, neither syllable of these bisyllabic words 

matched an existing word (i.e. they were composed of two pseudowords, 

e.g., CRAVATE [TIE]). As in Experiment 1a, each bisyllabic target was 

associated to three monosyllabic primes. One prime corresponded to the 

rst syllable of the target (e.g., cra-CRAVATE); another matched the 

second syllable of the target (e.g., vate-CRAVATE) and a third served as 

control prime (e.g., dule-CRAVATE). The targets’ average frequency is 

25 occurrences per million (frequencies given by TLF). Stimulus word 

durations (in milliseconds) were as follows: targets, 678 ms; initial-overlap 

primes, 345 ms; nal-overlap primes, 523 ms; control primes, 435 ms. 

Thirty-six bisyllabic pseudoword targets were constructed according to the 

same criteria as the word targets and served as catch trials. Each contained 

two embedded monosyllabic pseudowords used as primes. The experimental 

lists also included 120 bisyllabic ller pairs without any relation 

between primes and targets, half the targets being words and the other half 

being pseudowords. Therefore, the proportion of related pairs is 25%. The 

experimental words and pseudowords are listed in Appendix B. The 

procedure was the same as in Experiment 1a.



Results 

The results were analysed in the same way as in the rst experiment. The 

percentage of rejected values was 4%. 

As shown in the right-most column of Table 1, both overlap conditions 

still gave rise to facilitation. The effect of overlap condition was signicant 

by subjects (F1(2, 58) ˆ 30.9, p < .001), and by items (F2(2, 70) ˆ 31.4, p < 

.001). The facilitatory effect was signicant in the beginning overlap 

condition (F 1(1, 29) ˆ 18.9, p < .001, F 2(1, 35) ˆ 18.2, p < .001), and in the 

nal overlap condition (F 1(1, 29) ˆ 51.5, p < .001, F 2(1, 35) ˆ 62.4, p < 

.001). Analyses conducted on errors revealed no effect of overlap 

condition (F 1(2, 58 < 1; F 2(2, 70) < 1). 

Discussion 

The results of this experiment showed exactly the same pattern as those of 

Experiment 1a. For the beginning overlap condition, we obtained the same 

facilitation effect (40 ms) with pseudoword primes and with word primes. 

For the nal overlap condition, we obtained a 75 ms facilitation effect with 

pseudoword primes compared to a 65 ms effect with word primes. 

Therefore, it seems that the lexicality of the prime did not inuence the 

effects obtained with partial priming. Note that comparable results were 

obtained by Slowiaczek and Hamburger (1992) and Radeau et al. (1994) 

for nal overlap. With monosyllabic primes and targets, they showed that 

the nal facilitation effect was not affected by the lexical status of the 

primes. 

By means of this partial priming design in which we presented a 

fragment of the target as a prime, we obtained a facilitatory effect for 

initial overlap, whereas inhibitory effects have generally been reported for 

such an overlap. We also obtained a facilitatory effect for nal overlap, 

which is consistent with the data reported in the literature. What is the 

nature of the processes underlying the initial and nal facilitation effects? 

One possibility is that during the processing of the target, the sublexical 

units activated by the prime are reused to speed up the processing of the 

target, leading to shorter response times in the initial and nal conditions 

compared to the control condition. Another possibility is that the lexical 

representation of the target is activated by the information carried by the 

prime. Recall that the prime does not provide mismatching information, 

unlike previous studies that involved monosyllabic words. 2 Thus ver and 

cra may activate the representations of vertige and cravate and so may tige 

2 It could be argued that the silence occurring after the prime can be taken as a cue for 

word offset thus inducing, in the same way as a mismatching phoneme, the deactivation of the 

target. This point will be discussed in the general discussion.



and vate, leading to shorter response times for vertige and cravate, whose 

representations have been preactivated. A third possibility is that initial 

and nal facilitation effects reect different levels of processing. 

In order to examine this point, primes and targets were presented in 

different modalities in the following experiment. If the preactivation of 

sublexical units is the only origin of the facilitation observed for initial and 

nal overlap, no facilitation should be found using a crossmodal paradigm, 

because the sublexical units activated by the prime could not be reused to 

speed up the processing of the target in this case. On the contrary, if initial 

and nal facilitations reect the activation of the lexical representation of 

the target, they should be modality independent and should remain when 

tested in different modalities. 

As the data reviewed in the introduction suggest, beginning overlap 

effects reect lexical competition. Therefore we hypothesise that in the 

partial priming condition of Experiments 1a and 1b, with the rst syllable 

of the target presented as prime, the facilitation reects the activation of 

the lexical representation of the target, and not only the use of 

preactivated sublexical units. If this hypothesis is true, we predict that 

the initial overlap effect will be observed with a crossmodal paradigm. On 

the contrary, the nal facilitation effect has been interpreted as the result 

of activation of sublexical units by the prime. Therefore, we predict that 

the effect will disappear in the crossmodal paradigm. 

To further ascertain the nature of the beginning overlap effect, we 

compared the partial priming condition with a condition of bisyllabic 

priming in which bisyllabic words sharing the rst syllable with the target 

served as primes (verger-VERTIGE, [orchard-VERTIGO]. This bisyllabic 

priming condition parallels the beginning overlap that is generally used in 

phonological priming experiments with monosyllables since the activation 

of a given candidate is measured after the processing of mismatching 

information. 3 

Note nally that we aimed to compare bisyllabic word primes and 

monosyllabic primes. Because the lexicality of the prime did not inuence 

our previous effects, only word primes were used in the following 

experiments. 

Method 

EXPERIMENT 2 

Participants. Sixty students participated in this experiment for course 

credit. All participants were native speakers of French, had normal or 

3 Final overlap bisyllabic primes were used in the crossmodal experiment to parallel the 

experimental conditions of the partial priming. A null effect is predicted in this condition for 

the same reason as for the nal partial priming.



corrected vision and reported no hearing impairment. Half of them were 

tested in the partial priming condition, and the other half in the bisyllabic 

priming condition. 

Stimuli and design. For the partial priming condition, the primes were 

re-recorded tokens of the primes used in Experiment 1a. The average 

duration of the primes was 343 ms for the initial-overlap set, 369 ms for the 

nal-overlap set and 395 ms for the control condition. 

For the bisyllabic priming condition, the 36 bisyllabic word targets of 

Experiment 1a also served as targets. Three bisyllabic prime words were 

chosen for each target. One began with the rst syllable of the target (e.g., 

verger-VERTIGE, [orchard- VERTIGO], beginning-overlap condition); 

one ended with the second syllable of the target (e.g., prestige-VERTIGE, 

nal-overlap condition) and one was not related to the target (e.g., 

tambour [drum]- VERTIGE, control condition). Stimulus word frequencies 

(per million) were as follows: initial-overlap primes, 8; nal-overlap 

primes, 8; control primes, 7. Stimulus word durations (in milliseconds) 

were as follows: initial-overlap primes, 575 ms; nal-overlap primes, 613 

ms; control primes, 611 ms. Thirty-six bisyllabic pseudowords containing 

two embedded words served as catch trials. As ller targets, 120 bisyllabic 

items (60 words and 60 pseudowords) were included in the experimental 

lists. One hundred and twenty bisyllabic words unrelated to the targets 

served as ller primes. The proportion of related items was 25%. The 

experimental words and pseudowords are listed in Appendix C. 

Procedure. The prime words were recorded in a soundproof room by a 

female native speaker of French. The stimuli were sampled at 44 kHz and 

then transferred in a computer at a sampling rate of 22.05 kHz and 16 bit 

conversion using the Wave Studio sound editor. Participants were tested 

individually in a quiet room. The prime was presented auditorily at a 

comfortable sound level through Sony MDR-P1 headphones. At the end 

of the auditory prime and after a delay of 50 ms (ISI), the target was 

visually displayed in upper case at the centre of the computer screen and 

remained on the screen until the participant’s response. The participants 

were informed that the visual target could be either a word or a 

pseudoword and were asked to perform a lexical decision task on the visual 

target. The computer clock was triggered by the presentation of the target 

on the screen and stopped by the response. Each participant was tested 

either in the partial or in the bisyllabic priming condition.


Results 


The results are presented in Table 2. Incorrect responses and RTs longer 

than 1500 ms were removed, excluding 4% of responses. One item that 

gave rise to extremely long reaction times in the control trials of the 

bisyllabic condition was also discarded from the analyses. Two-way 

analyses of variance with overlap condition (beginning, nal, control) 

and priming condition (partial, bisyllabic) were performed on the data. 

Analyses of variance conducted on RTs revealed no main effect of 

overlap condition (F 1(2, 116) ˆ 2.64; p < .07; F 2(2, 69) ˆ 1.75, p < .18). 

However, the overlap £ priming condition interaction was signicant by 

subjects (F 1(2, 116) ˆ 6.11; p < .003) and by items (F 2(2, 69) ˆ 3.9, p < 

.02). Planned comparisons were conducted to assess the effect of the 

different overlap conditions under the partial and bisyllabic priming 

conditions. In the partial priming condition, a signicant facilitatory effect 

of the beginning overlap condition relative to the control condition was 

obtained (F 1(1, 29) ˆ 14.16; p < .001; F 2(1, 35) ˆ 5.36; p < .025). For nal 

overlap, there was not a signicant difference between the related and the 

control conditions (both F 1 and F 2 < 1). In the bisyllabic priming condition, 

planned comparisons showed no effect of either type of overlap relative to 

the control condition (beginning overlap: F 1(1, 29) ˆ 1.69, p < .20; F 2(1, 

34) ˆ 1.67, p < .20); nal overlap: F 1(1, 29) ˆ 1.93, p < .17; F 2(1, 34) ˆ 

1.04, p < .32). 

Analyses conducted on errors revealed no main effect of overlap 

condition (both F 1 and F 2 < 1) and no interaction between overlap and 

priming conditions (F 1 close to 1 and F 2 < 1). 

TABLE 2 

Mean reaction times in milliseconds (ms), standard deviation for correct 

responses to the word targets and error rates in the three overlap 

conditions of Experiment 2 with auditory-visual presentation 


Beginning 

priming 

Final 

priming 

Partial priming 

RT (ms) 588 621 619 ‡ 31 ¡ 2 

SD (82) (101) (90) 

Errors (%) 3 3 3 

Bisyllabic priming 

RT (ms) 621 619 607 ¡ 14 ¡ 12 

SD (79) (77) (71) 

Errors (%) 3 2 4



Discussion 

For partial priming, facilitation was found only for prime words 

overlapping with targets in the initial syllable; no priming was observed 

for primes overlapping in the second syllable. The fact that the initial 

facilitation effect remains when the target is visually presented supports 

the idea that the lexical representation of the target is activated during the 

processing of the prime. Indeed, if we suppose that the 50 ms interstimulus-interval 

between the end of the prime and the presentation of the 

target is not long enough to be processed as mismatching information, the 

target occurs while it is still activated by the prime. This preactivation of 

the lexical representation of the target would then be responsible for the 

initial-overlap facilitation effect. 

For nal overlap, the lack of facilitation is compatible with previous 

results in the literature, as nal phonological overlap effects have never 

been reported with a crossmodal paradigm. These results thus argue in 

favour of the idea that the processes responsible for the nal overlap 

facilitation involve only the activation of sublexical units. The nal 

facilitation obtained in auditory-auditory priming could be due to the fact 

that primes and targets share a number of sublexical units. This means that 

although hearing tige would facilitate the subsequent processing of vertige, 

it would not activate its lexical representation. 

In the condition of bisyllabic priming, the beginning overlap condition 

did not give rise to any facilitation of target processing. Hence, depending 

on the nature of the prime (monosyllabic as in ‘‘ver-vertige’’ or bisyllabic 

as in ‘‘verger-vertige’’), we observed either facilitation or no effect, 

respectively. Moreover, although not signicant, the results with bisyllabic 

primes suggest inhibition rather than facilitation. According to our 

interpretation, when the prime was a monosyllabic word, the target 

received bottom up activation from the prime and remained activated 

because there was no mismatching information in the acoustic realisation 

of the prime. Thus, the representation of the preactivated target was not 

deactivated when the target was presented. On the contrary, when the 

prime was a bisyllabic word, it induced deactivation of the target. In the 

case of ‘‘verger-VERTIGE’’, hearing the beginning of the prime would 

send bottom up activation to a cohort of candidates beginning by ‘‘ver’’, 

but during the processing of ‘‘g’’ in ‘‘verger’’, the word ‘‘vertige’’ would 

start to be deactivated or inhibited. Thus, at the end of the prime ‘‘verger’’, 

the word ‘‘vertige’’ would no longer be activated when subsequently 

presented as a target. 

Our results are compatible with those reported by Zwitserlood (1989) 

who found that the two semantically related targets ‘‘geld’’ (money in 

Dutch) and ‘‘boot’’ (ship) were facilitated when presented during the /t/ of



the auditorily presented primes ‘‘kapitaal’’ (capital) and ‘‘kapitein’’ 

(captain). However, when the visual target appeared at the end of the 

prime, only the appropriate related target was facilitated. This showed 

that, although both candidates had been activated in a rst stage, 

facilitation disappeared as soon as the sensory information favoured one 

of the candidates over the others. 

In Experiments 1a, 1b and 2, we used a lexical decision task. It could be 

argued that a checking mechanism for congruency between prime and 

target would be involved in our effects (Balota & Chumbley, 1984). Such a 

mechanism would be described as the tendency of the subjects to respond 

« yes when the pairs are phonologically related and « no when the 

pairs are not related. This would then lead to a decrease in response times 

for the related pairs of words (since the result of checking for relatedness is 

compatible with the word responses) and to an increase in response times 

for the control pairs of words (since the result is not compatible with the 

‘‘yes’’ responses in that case). Let us note that if this kind of checking 

mechanism was involved, it should produce a facilitation effect for both 

kinds of overlap and not only for beginning overlap. However, to conrm 

that the beginning overlap facilitation effect did result from activation by 

the prime of the representation of the target, in Experiment 3, the partial 

priming conditions of Experiments 1a and 2 were re-examined with a 

naming task. 

Method 

EXPERIMENT 3 

Participants. Thirty students participated in this experiment for course 

credit. They were selected according to the same criteria as in Experiment 

2. 

Stimuli and design. The items were the same as those of Experiment 1a 

and 2 (partial priming). However, pseudowords were not included in this 

experiment. 

Procedure. The stimuli were presented as in Experiment 2. Instead of 

performing a lexical decision task on the targets, the participants were 

asked to pronounce each word as rapidly and as accurately as possible. The 

vocal response triggered a voice key connected to the computer. The target 

remained on the screen until a vocal response was made. Naming latencies 

were measured from target onset to the triggering of the voice key by the 

participant’s response. Occasional naming errors were collected on-line by 

the experimenter.



Results 

Mean correct RTs and SDs for the targets in the different overlap 

conditions are given in Table 3. Mean RTs were analysed by subjects and 

by items with overlap conditions as main factor. The percentage of rejected 

values was 4%. 

One-way Anovas conducted on RTs revealed a main effect of overlap 

condition, signicant by subjects (F 1(2, 58) ˆ 7.08, p < .002), but 

marginally signicant by items (F 2(2, 70) ˆ 2.76, p < .068). Planned 

comparisons yielded a signicant facilitatory effect of beginning overlap 

(F 1(1, 29) ˆ 13.26, p < .001, F 2(1, 35) ˆ 4.36, p < .04) but no signicant 

effect of nal overlap (F 1(1, 29) ˆ 2.96, p < .92, F 2(1, 35) < 1). Analyses 

conducted on errors revealed no main effect of overlap (F 1(2, 58) close to 1 

and F 2(2, 70) < 1). 

Discussion 

Experiment 3 was designed to provide evidence that the facilitation effect 

observed in the previous experiments with initial overlap did not take 

place at a decisional level. For that purpose, we used a naming task instead 

of a lexical decision task. When the subjects had to name the targets, we 

observed the same pattern of results found with the lexical decision task, 

i.e., a facilitation for beginning overlap and no effect for nal overlap. In 

this task, participants do not make any binary decisions since only words 

are presented. Thus, because we replicate the beginning overlap 

facilitation effect, this effect cannot be attributed to an artifact of the 

lexical decision task. On the contrary, we interpret the beginning overlap 

facilitation effect in terms of the activation of the representations of lexical 

candidates. 

GENERAL DISCUSSION 

The aim of the present research was to examine the processes of activation 

and deactivation of candidates during spoken word processing. This 

TABLE 3 

Mean naming latencies in milliseconds (ms), standard deviation for correct responses 

to the targets and error rates in the three priming conditions of Experiment 3 with 

auditory-visual presentation 


Beginning 

priming 

Final 

priming 

RT (ms) 487 497 506 ‡ 19 ‡ 9 

SD (62) (59) (65) 

Errors (%) 3 2 2



question was examined using the phonological priming paradigm with 

bisyllabic words. We found that partial priming (i.e., when the prime is the 

rst or the second syllable of the target) facilitates target processing when 

the prime/target pairs are presented in the auditory modality (Experiment 

1a and 1b). On the basis of the results of Experiments 2 and 3, we 

suggested that nal overlap facilitation was prelexical, whereas initial 

overlap facilitation reected the activation of candidates at a lexical level 

of processing. 

Interpretation of the partial priming results 

In the interpretation of the results, we have made a distinction between the 

effects observed in the nal and beginning overlap conditions. For partial 

priming, we found a nal-overlap facilitation effect for word and 

pseudoword primes in the auditory-auditory modality. The nal-overlap 

facilitation disappeared when primes and targets were presented in two 

different modalities. Taken together, the results suggest that the nal 

overlap facilitation effect is prelexical. By prelexical, we mean that the 

processing of the prime does not involve the activation of the lexical 

representation of the target. The facilitation effect does not arise from the 

preactivation of the representation of the target but from the preactivation 

of the sublexical units (e.g., phonemes) shared by the prime and the target. 

If the sublexical units preactivated during the processing of the prime are 

not reheard, as it is the case in the crossmodal condition, the nal overlap 

facilitation is not observed. 

In the initial-overlap partial priming condition (e.g., ver-VERTIGE), we 

also found facilitation but we suggest that the processing underlying the 

beginning overlap facilitation effect is different from that at the basis of the 

nal facilitation effect. We found this effect with both word and 

pseudoword primes in the auditory-auditory modality condition. Moreover 

the effect remained when tested in the crossmodal condition. For that 

reason, we suggest that the beginning overlap facilitation effect occurs at 

the lexical level. By lexical, we mean that the processing of the prime 

induces the activation of the lexical representation of the target. The 

facilitation effect results from the fact that the lexical representation of the 

target (e.g., VERTIGE) has been preactivated during the processing of the 

prime (e.g., ver) and has not been deactivated at the time of target 

presentation. This is not the case in the control (unrelated) condition in 

which the lexical representation of the target has not been preactivated at 

all. The facilitation effect is based on the fact that the representation of the 

target remains activated after the end of prime presentation. This implies 

that the system does not take the silence occurring at the end of the prime 

(ISI) as mismatching information regarding the form representation of the



target. Indeed, we assume that the silence in this case is short enough not 

to be taken as a word boundary and therefore as mismatching information. 

A suggestive comparison could be made with the silences (closure 

durations) that are characteristic of stop consonants. In normal speech, 

the closure duration of voiceless stop consonants is usually a bit longer 

than 50 ms (Crystal & House, 1988) and this suggests that our short silence 

could not be taken as a cue for a word boundary. 

Another point that should be considered is the activation of the lexical 

representation of the prime word which becomes activated and competes 

with the target for recognition. This representation can be activated not 

only during the processing of the prime but also during the processing of 

the target (as in Experiments 1a, 2 and 3 where the targets were formed of 

two embedded words). Previous studies have suggested that during the 

processing of such carrier words, the embedded words are activated under 

some conditions. Although it seems clear that the initial embedded words 

become activated during the processing of the carrier word (Prather & 

Swinney, 1977; see also Frauenfelder & Peeters, 1990), the results are not 

as clear for the nal embedded words. Evidence for the activation of the 

second embedded word in bisyllabic carrier words has sometimes been 

found (Luce & Cluff, 1998; Shillcock, 1990; Vroomen & De Gelder, 1997) 

but not in all experiments (Gow & Gordon, 1995; Prather & Swinney, 

1977; see also Frauenfelder & Peeters, 1990). 

In principle, if embedded words become activated during the processing 

of the carrier word, they should compete with the carrier word for 

recognition and then lower the activation of the carrier word. 4 However, in 

Experiments 1a (where the targets were carrier words composed of two 

embedded words) and 1b (where the targets were composed of two 

pseudowords), we obtained exactly the same pattern of results. This means 

that when the prime is a word, the fact that its representation becomes 

activated does not inuence the facilitation effect. 

This result could be accounted for in several ways. A rst possibility is 

that, as is postulated in the early version of the Cohort model (Marslen- 

Wilson & Welsh, 1978), there is no lateral inhibition between lexical nodes 

and therefore, words do not compete directly with each other. In this case, 

the activation of ver and other members of the cohort does not have a 

direct inuence on the activation of the target vertige. Another possibility 

is that there is direct competition between candidates, via lateral inhibition 

(as postulated in the models TRACE and Shortlist). As in the cohort case, 

the prime word ver becomes activated, as well as other candidates such as 

verve, vertu, verveine . . . . On this account, the target receives inhibition 

4 Surprisingly, Luce and Lyons (1999) showed that bisyllabic words containing an initial 

embedded word were processed faster than bisyllabic words composed of two pseudowords.



from the prime, and also from all of the other lexical candidates activated 

by the prime. This explain how inhibition of the target may arise from a 

non-word prime: the inhibition comes from actual words activated by the 

prime. For example, although the prime cra which is not a word does not 

compete directly with the target, it activates a number of other competitors 

beginning with cra (like crane, crabe, cratère . . . .) which themselves 

compete with the target. Because the target has to compete with all the 

members of the cohort activated by the prime, the effect of an additional 

competitor (i.e., the prime itself) is probably too weak to manifest itself in 

the beginning overlap facilitation effect of Experiments 1a and 1b. This 

argument is also valid for Cohort II and for NAM in which word 

identication is computed as a ratio, and where having one more candidate 

in the denominator of the ratio should not play any role. The important 

point is that as there must be many candidates activated by the prime 

anyway, there is no effect of having one more candidate activated, 

whatever the nature of the competition process. 

Interpretation of the bisyllabic priming results 

We now turn to the results for initial overlap and bisyllabic priming. 

Contrary to the initial partial priming, which facilitated processing of the 

target, the same target primed with a bisyllabic word beginning with the 

rst same syllable was not facilitated. Although not signicant, the results 

suggested inhibition rather than facilitation. This result is compatible with 

previous crossmodal priming results (e.g., Marslen-Wilson, 1990). Marslen- 

Wilson found that (e.g.) ‘‘dock’’ facilitated ‘‘DOG’’ when the target was 

presented 50 ms before the end of the vowel in ‘‘dock’’; however, ‘‘dock’’ 

inhibited ‘‘DOG’’ when the target was presented at the offset of the prime. 

This change in the effect of the prime under different stimulus onset 

asynchrony reects multiple activation and selection of candidates. 

The results of Experiments 1a and 1b suggest that during the processing 

of the initial segments of a bisyllabic prime like verger, the lexical 

representation of the target vertige is initially activated. However, at the 

end of the prime verger, vertige is no longer activated. It seems then that 

the mismatching information contained in the prime allowed the 

deactivation of the target. Note that our results cannot tease apart 

whether the deactivation is due to lateral competition or simply to 

mismatch with the input. 

Consider the models that postulate lateral inhibition between word 

nodes (TRACE, Shortlist). If the mismatching candidates have been 

actively inhibited by the winner and if one of these inhibited candidates 

was subsequently presented as a target, its processing should be slowed 

down compared to a control condition. Rather than lack of facilitation in



bisyllabic priming condition of Experiment 2, we would then expect an 

inhibitory effect of such prime/target relationship. 

Although there was a tendency for inhibition in the bisyllabic priming 

condition of Experiment 2, the effect failed to reach signicance. As 

primes and targets were matched in frequency, the relative frequency 

between primes and targets which has sometimes been shown to have an 

effect in priming experiments (Luce, Pisoni & Goldinger, 1990; Marslen- 

Wilson, 1990) is here a factor that cannot account for this lack of 

inhibition. However, it is possible that the overlap between the primes and 

targets was not sufcient to induce inhibition. Previous experiments using 

monosyllabic words report beginning overlap inhibitory effect with an 

overlap of at least 66.6% (2 phonemes out of 3; Marslen-Wilson, 1990) up 

to 75% (3 phonemes out of 4; Hamburger & Slowiaczek, 1996) whereas the 

overlap we used was not greater than 3 phonemes out of 6 or 7 (50% or 

43%). Moreover, inhibitory effects were also found with multisyllabic 

prime/target pairs by Monsell & Hirsh (1998, Exp 3a, 3b and 4). With a 

continuous lexical decision paradigm with long lags of priming (1.2 to 4 

minutes in average), Monsell and Hirsh obtained increased response times 

for words preceded by words sharing the rst syllable. However, many of 

the prime/target pairs shared more than the initial syllable (e.g., kidneykidnap, 

cinema-cinnamon). The average phonemic overlap was thus 66% 

in their experiments (3.7 out of 5.6 phonemes) which led us to suppose that 

the failure to nd an inhibitory effect in our Experiment 2 might have been 

related to the small amount of phonemic overlap. 

In summary, the results of this study show that initial and nal overlap 

priming effects reect different levels of processing. Although the 

information carried by the beginning of words is sufcient to activate 

their representation, processing the end of a word does not seem to 

activate its representation. Moreover, when the signal carries mismatching 

information, the lexical representations of the mismatching candidates are 

deactivated or inhibited. These results thus provide evidence for successive 

stages of activation and deactivation of lexical candidates according to 

their degree of matching with the unfolding input. 

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APPENDIX A 

Material used as targets and as beginning, nal and control primes in Experiments 1a and 3. 

Word targets Beginning Final Control 

carcasse [karkas] car [kar] casse [kAs] bien 

cartable [kartabl] car [kar] table [tabl] loin 

corniche [kOrniS] cor [kOr] niche [niS] cuve 

coulisse [kulis] cou [ku] lisse [lis] oeuf 

critique [kritik] cri [kri] tique [tik] cave 

poubelle [pubEl] pou [pu] belle [bEl] coin 

tournage [turnaZ] tour [tur] nage [naZ] mise 

troupeau [trupo] trou [tru] peau [po] juge 

verveine [vErvEn] ver [vEr] veine [vEn] lm 

pincette [pe˜EsEt] pin [pE] cette [sEt] chef 

parcours [parkur] par [par] cours [kur] face 

mouchoir [muSwar] mou [mu] choir [Swar] foin 

arctique [arktik] arc [ark] tique [tik] lobe 

corbeau [kOrbo] cor [kOr] beau [bo] plan 

carnage [karnaZ] car [kar] nage [naZ] rire 

chardon [SardcÕ] char [Sar] don [dcÕ] vase 

dégaine [degEn] dé [de] gaine [gEn] puce 

soudure [sudyr] sou [sud] dure [dyr] zone



vermine [vErmin] ver [vEr] mine [min] ruse 

corsage [kOrsaZ] cor [kOr] sage [saZ] lien 

boisson [bwascÕ] bois [bwa] son [scÕ] acte 

cassure [kAsyr] cas [kA] sure [syr] rêve 

massage [masaZ] mas [mA] sage [saZ] rive 

soutien [sutje˜E] sou [su] tien [tje˜E] rime 

charbon [SarbcÕ] char [Sar] bon [bcÕ] nuit 

voltige [vOltiZ] vol [vOl] tige [tiZ] base 

vertige [vErtiZ] ver [vEr] tige [tiZ] brin 

couvert [kuvEr] cou [ku] vert [vEr] arme 

verdure [vErdyr] ver [vEr] dure [dyr] noce 

cordon [kOrdcÕ] cor [kOr] don [dcÕ] fade 

moulin [mule˜E] mou [mu] lin [le˜E] lion 

pinson [pe˜EscÕ] pin [pe˜E] son [scÕ] bord 

débile [debil] dé [de] bile [bil] muse 

passeport [pAspOr] passe [pAs] port [pOr] aide 

pourboire [purbwar] pour [pur] boire [bwar] joie 

trousseau [truso] trou [tru] seau [so] oeil 

Pseudoword targets Beginning Final Control 

tromasse trot masse veau 

pourvent pour vent choc 

racycle rat cycle vide 

mouvanne mou vanne cote 

ormonde or monde cran 

graterre gras terre dalle 

borvie bord vie date 

caldure cale dure dome 

chassot chat seau fêve 

poulmar poule mare an 

garsoin gare soin loge 

lipoire lit poire luge 

crudale cru dalle miel 

murdose mur dose ocre 

criboue cri boue ogre 

tarbeau tare beau onde 

rafoule rat foule orge 

farseau phare seau anse 

torvain tort vin ame 

glutique glu tique bec 

grutonne grue tonne axe 

troumale trou male blé 

lourire loup rire bus 

murcire mur cire cap 

morcave mort cave coq 

poupier pou pied feu 

orvile or ville lac 

poitaux poids taux roc 

sanpore sang port sac 

griloque gris loque sec 

pourfeinte pour feinte ski



ferloup fer loup sud 

platrame plat trame rite 

plicage pli cage vote 

taurate taux rate zèle 

ruclan rue clan bave 

APPENDIX B 

Material used as targets and as beginning, nal and control primes in Experiment 1b 

Word targets Beginning Final Control 

cravate cra vate dule 

colline co line jaic 

navette na vette dri 

chevreuil che vreuil pade 

clivage cli vage bre 

tragique tra gique blu 

bronzage bron zage sca 

cloison cloi zon ruc 

gorille go rille daf 

turquoise tur quoise gli 

tranquille tran quil duce 

nation na tion dif 

tisane ti zane blo 

comique co mique spa 

nature na ture ric 

chenille che nille clon 

berceuse ber ceuse cli 

damier da mier cron 

échette é chette ja 

blindage blin dage pru 

glissiere gli ciere dro 

clavier cla vier dre 

breuvage breu vage glin 

anelle a nelle sti 

timide ti mide cra 

cochon co chon bla 

narine na rine drou 

cheville che ville fabe 

branchage bran chage noc 

blizzard bli zard nof 

reptile rep tile a 

glaciaire gla ciaire in 

grenade gre nade duf 

praline pra line dui 

stupide stu pide dron 

colombe co lombe be



Pseudoword targets Beginning Final Control 

cratile cra tile daif 

chenupe che nupe bli 

spadran spa dran clu 

stirane sti rane blin 

drofule dro fule drane 

bredille bre dille bune 

vrinoule vri noule gleu 

franale fra nale spui 

cofule co fule clir 

varpide var pide sco 

nurvade nur vade c 

jocride jo cride vra 

jalide ja lide doin 

clapron cla pron fouc 

clidrone cli drone on 

gurette gu rette doce 

drifune dri fune vro 

prabune pra bune spo 

vrapime vra pime fuc 

guvlon gu vlon de 

joklon jo klon tru 

frulipe fru lipe gate 

daprin da prin jo 

frodace fro dace spu 

gunole gu nole cade 

jatran ja tran dof 

croutile crou tile tra 

drefoge dre foge lane 

choncade chon cade jic 

chonrice chon rice jal 

tuimave tui mave joc 

crondile cron dile juc 

javuce ja vuce treu 

frucade fru cade jode 

plouvade plou vade laic 

trugote tru gote line



APPENDIX C 

Material used as targets and as beginning, nal and control primes in Experiment 2 

Word Targets Partial primes Bisyllabic primes 

Beginning Final Control Beginning Final Control 

R 

carcasse car casse bien cartouche [kartuS] bécasse [bekas] stature 

cartable car table loin carpette [karpEt] comptable [kcÕtabl] chevreuil 

corniche cor niche cuve cordage [kOrdAZ] péniche [peniS] lavande 

coulisse cou lisse oeuf couture [kutyr] pelisse [p@lis] oeillière 

critique cri tique cave crinière [krinjEr] boutique [butik] monnaie 

poubelle pou belle coin poussin [puse˜E] rebelle [r@bEl] savate 

tournage tour nage mise tourteau [turto] freinage [frEnaZ] calcium 

troupeau trou peau juge troubler [truble] drapeau [drapo] soupir 

verveine ver veine lm vertèbre [vErtEbr] déveine [devEn] brochet 

pincette pin cette chef pingouin [pe˜Egwe˜E] facette [fasEt] intrus 

parcours par cours face parcelle [parsEl] concours [kcÕkur] moteur 

mouchoir mou choir foin mourant [murñA] perchoir [pErSwar] écaille 

arctique arc tique lobe arcade [arkad] moustique [mustik] pantoue 

corbeau cor beau plan cornet [kOrnE] ambeau [ñAbo] riposte 

carnage car nage rire carbone [karbOn] lainage [lEnaZ] tremplin 

chardon char don vase chargeur [SarZør] dindon [de˜EdcÕ] biceps 

dégaine dé gaine puce déclic [deklik] rengaine [rñAgEn] corneille 

soudure sou dure zone souillon [sujcÕ] bordure [bOrdyr] présage 

vermine ver mine ruse version [vErsjcÕ] famine [famin] rouleau 

corsage cor sage lien cortège [kOrtEZ] message [mesaZ] ancêtre 

boisson bois son acte boiteux [bwat@] caisson [kEscÕ] lentille 

cassure cas sure rêve cassis [kasis] censure [sñAsyr] syntaxe 

massage mas sage rive mamouth [mamut] dressage [dresaZ] nordique 

soutien sou tien rime soufet [suE] maitien [me˜Etje˜E] perruche 

charbon char bon nuit charpente [SarpñAt] jambon [ñAbcÕ] ardoise 

voltige vol tige base volcan [vOlkñA] litige [litiZ] emphase 

vertige ver tige brin verger [vErZe] prestige [prEstiZ] tambour 

couvert cou vert arme coutume [kutym] pivert [pivEr] entente 

verdure ver dure noce verdict [vErdikt] ordure [Ordyr] acide 

cordon cor don fade corvée [kOrve] bidon [bidO] cachet 

moulin mou lin lion mouton [mutcÕ)] calin [kale˜E] coquet 

pinson pin son bord pintade [pe˜Etad] cuisson [khiscÕ] tornade 

débile dé bile muse déluge [delyZ] habile [abil] pétrole 

passeport 

dange 

passe port aide passerelle [pAsrEl] support [sypO ] ven- 

pourboire pour boire joie pourceau [purso] déboire [debwar] cravache 

trousseau trou seau oeil trouvaille [truvAj] vaisseau [vEso] marais



Pseudoword targets Partial primes Bisyllabic primes 

Beginning Final Control Beginning Final Control 

tromasse trot masse veau trognon ramasse achat 

pourvent pour vent choc pourtour auvent acier 

carcycle rat cycle vide carafe tricycle canon 

goussage gout sage cote goulot tissage echec 

vermonde ver monde cran version immonde elève 

graterre gras terre dalle gracieux parterre lessive 

borvie bord vie date bordeaux envie baton 

caldure cale dure dome calcaire soudure étape 

chassot chat seau fêve chacal cuissot bérêt 

poulmar poule mare an poulie cauchemar cumin 

garsoin gare soin loge gardien marsouin oubli 

liveau lit veau luge limande cerveau ébène 

bradale cru dalle miel bravoure sandale souci 

murloupe mur loupe ocre murmure chaloupe image 

crivol cri vol ogre cribler envol neveu 

tarbeau tare beau onde tardif tombeau auberge 

radon rat don orge rameau guidon enjeu 

farseau phare seau anse farcir ruisseau hotel 

torvain tort vin ame tortue levain arène 

glutique glu tique bec glucose antique écume 

grutonne grue tonne axe grumeau automne piscine 

troumale trou male blé troubler normale lilas 

plarire plat rire bus plafond sourire coton 

carcire car cire cap carton mincir maillot 

morcave mort cave coq morceau concave citron 

poupier pou pied feu pouvoir copier cargo 

orvile or ville lac orteil servile rasoir 

poitaux poids taux roc poignée cristaux éveil 

sanport sang port sac sanglot import féline 

griloque gris loque sec grillade colloque ltrer 

pourfeinte pour feinte ski pourpoint défunte forger 

ferloup fer loup sud fermier zoulou jambon 

plaprime plat prime rite placard déprime joyau 

plicage pli cage vote pliure blocage leçon 

taurate taux rate zèle taureau mérite lunette 

rucane rue cane bave rumeur arcane bijou



APPENDIX D 

Stimuli statistics (Frequencies are given by one million) 

Primes 

Targets Initial Final Control 

Exp 1a 

Frequency 11 247 420 189 

Duration (ms) 688 394 450 446 

Exp 1b 

Frequency 25 — — — 

Duration (ms) 678 345 523 435 

Exp 2 

Partial priming 

Frequency 11 247 420 189 

Duration — 343 369 395 

Bisyllabic priming 

Frequency 11 8 8 7 

Duration (ms) — 575 613 611

Language and Cognitive Processes - Institut für Phonetik

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