Midterm - Labs Flashcards
In the class Associative Priming experiment, how do you explain the finding that word decisions were made faster to associated than to unrelated word pairs?
Word decisions were made faster to associated word pairs, compared to unrelated word pairs due to the associative priming that occurs and spreading activation effects.
In a class lab experiment where we compared lexical decision times to word pairs that were associated (e.g. doctor nurse) with word pairs that were not related (e.g. fudge grass) we found faster responses to associated pairs. How is the result explained?
This result is explained by our spreading activation processes which links associated words closer together and thus, results in a faster reaction time. Word pairs that are not related produce a slower reaction time as it takes longer for our spreading activation to process.
In an experiment, under what circumstances do error rates make the interpretation of RT differences between conditions problematic?
It becomes problematic when there is a speed-accuracy trade off. This happens in cases like where there are more errors in the slowest condition and less in the fastest condition or where there are no errors at all.
