Long-term repetition priming and semantic interference in a lexical-semantic matching task: object names and colors

Using a novel paradigm to engage the long-term mappings between object names and the prototypical colors for objects, we investigated the retrieval of object-color knowledge as indexed by long-term priming (the benefit in performance from a prior encounter with the same or a similar stimulus); a process about which little is known. We examined priming from object naming on alexical semantic matching task. In the matching task participants encountered a visually presented object name (Experiment 1) or object shape ( Experiment 2) paired with either a color patch or color name. The pairings could either match where by both were consistent with a familiar object (e.g., strawberry and red) or mismatch (strawberry and blue). We used the matching task to probe knowledge about familiar objects and their colors pre-activated during object naming. In particular, we examined whether the retrieval of object-color information was modality-specific and whether this influenced priming. Priming varied with the nature of the retrieval process: object-color priming a rose for object names but not object shapes and beneficial effects of priming were observed for color patches whereas inhibitory priming a rose with color names. These findings have implications for understanding how object knowledge is retrieved from memory and modified by learning.