Priming effects in a letter-by-letter reader depend upon access to the word form system

Abstract

Several types of cognitive and neuropsychological evidence suggest that priming effects on such implicit memory tests as word identification are mediated by a pre-semantic visual word form system that can operate independently of episodic memory. We investigate priming in a letter-by-letter reader, P.T., whose pattern of performance on neuropsychological tests indicates preservation of the word form system. Experiment 1 revealed robust priming on a word identification test following letter-by-letter study of target words, despite P.T.'s great difficulty in identifying non-studied words. Experiment 2 showed that the priming effect was modality specific whereas Experiment 3 indicated that recall of previously studied words was not modality specific, thus indicating that the observed priming could not be attributed to explicit memory strategies. Experiment 4 revealed no priming of illegal nonwords on a letter identification test. The results support the notion that priming on the word identification test depends on access to the word form system.