Abstract
An expectancy interpretation of semantic congruity effects suggests that in symbolic comparisons involving the typical comparative-then-stimuli paradigm, the comparative acts as a cue in priming memory for related stimuli. A recent study by Holyoak and Mah (1981) presented evidence purported to disconfirm this hypothesis insofar as a congruity effect also was obtained when the stimuli preceded the comparative. The present study showed the stimulicomparative effect to be a consequence of the pairing of stimuli with particularly salient comparatives such that the former could serve the cuing function. This finding is consistent with the expectancy hypothesis in emphasizing the role of a flexible encoding process but inconsistent with the view that only comparatives can create expectancies in symbolic comparisons.
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Reference Notes
1. Marschark, M., & Paivio, A.Expectancy, associative priming, and the locus of semantic congruity effects in comparative judgments. Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
2. Marschark, M., & Azmitia, M. M.Congruity and the development of associative priming. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Philadelphia, November 1981.
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This research was one of several projects conducted by the UNC-G Psychology Language Research Group. Diane Praetorius and Judy Keating were the group members primarily connected with this project, having collected the data for Experiment 2. Carole Greer assisted in the data collection and analyses of Experiment 1, and Reed Hunt provided several useful comments on an earlier manuscript. The project was supported by a grant from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Research Council.
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03213354.
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Marschark, M. Semantic congruity in symbolic comparisons: Salience, expectancy, and associative priming. Mem Cogn 11, 192–199 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213474
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213474