Activation and inhibition with orthographically similar words.

In 3 experiments, 91 undergraduates responded in a priming paradigm. Prime and target were orthographically related as they shared either the initial or the final letters. The experiments were based on the assumption that two orthographically similar words, separated by a short stimulus onset asynchrony, both belong to the same activated set and are therefore competing for recognition. In Exp I, the lexical status of the target was varied, and an inhibitory effect was found only when targets were words, not when they were pseudowords. An inhibitory effect was also found in Exps 2 and 3 for target words of high frequency, whereas with low-frequency target words, either a nonsignificant inhibitory effect or a facilitatory effect was found. Moreover, the effect seemed to vary in relation to the position of the letters shared by prime and target. Results are discussed in terms of an explanation according to which the prime would inhibit the word units of the activated set when these units reach a critical threshold of activation. This threshold would be reached faster by high-frequency words of the set because they start from a higher resting level. An alternative explanation consistent with the verification model is taken into account.