Spread of activation refers to the cognitive process of retrieving memory. When one part of memory is activated, other parts that are associated with that memory are partly activated as well. Early work on spread of activation was done by Collins and Quillian (1969) . They found that when words are associated with other words they are recognized faster. Da Polito and Struhar(1974) did further research on this topic using three word strings. Their research helped confirm earlier hypotheses that related words activate memory faster than those which are not related. Research has also been done on the range of automatic spreading of activation, that is, how far activation of semantic memory will spread (De Groot, 1983). Another important study done by Balota and Lorch (1986) was important for the current study. They used two unrelated words and linked them with a third word. For instance, if a participant was given the words lion and stripes, they would link the two with the word tiger. They found that activation does spread past related words.
This study focuses on letter cues to see if they will increase the spread of activation. By giving a cue during or before a stimulus presentation, the subject should respond to tasks more quickly because activation will have been facilitated by the cue. Another aspect of this study investigates if presenting a cue before the stimulus will decrease reaction time.
METHODS
Sixteen undergraduate students volunteered for this experiment. Each participant was taken individually, one at a time. A Power Macintosh G3 computer was used with the SuperLab computer program. There were three experimental conditions. The uncued condition consisted of two words appearing on the computer screen. The simultaneous cue condition consisted of a letter, serving as a prompt, between two words. The preceding cue condition started with a second-long appearance of a prompting letter, followed by two words with the same letter between them. Each of the conditions consisted of 25 word pairs. Between each trial was a three-second pause with a blank screen to provide a short break before the next word pair appeared. In the uncued condition, the participants were asked to think of a word that corresponded to the two words on the screen as quickly as possible, say the word aloud, and then hit the spacebar on the keyboard. The simultaneous cue condition was performed in the same manner and format, except that the participants were asked to think of a corresponding word that began with the prompting letter that appeared between the pair. The preceding cue condition differed from the simultaneous cue condition only in that the prompting letter was presented to the participants in "preparation" before the pair and the letter appeared a second later.
RESULTS
This experiment shows that the condition of a simultaneous cue provided the quickest reaction time of 2.505 seconds (see Figure 1). From the uncued condition (3.023 seconds) to the simultaneous cue condition(2.838 seconds), the hypothesis was correct; however, the mean of the reaction times increase again for the condition of a preceding cue, ending just slightly less than the mean for the uncued condition. The main result of this experiment is that the condition of simultaneous cueing was most advantageous for the quickest reaction time, leading to a conclusion that a simultaneous presentation of letter with word pairs produces the fastest automatic spread of activation.
DISCUSSION
The appearance of a prompting letter before the appearance of the word pair did not produce the fastest reaction time for the spread of activation, contrary to the hypothesis of this experiment. This could be because perhaps the presentation of the prompting letter for one second before the actual task served as a distraction to the automatic spread of activation and recollection of the semantic memory. Possibly this is caused because the participants felt an extra pressure with the letter being presented before hand, or that the word pairs themselves posed a distraction to the semantic memory, already focusing on the given prompting letter. One conclusion that can be made is that the automatic spread of activation works the fastest and most accurate when the word pair and the prompting letter are presented together, so that the process is a simultaneous effort, instead of a two-stage effort.
REFERENCES
Balota, D. A., & Lorch, R. L. Jr. (1986). Depth of automatic spreading activation: Mediated priming effects in pronunciation but not in lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12(3), 336-345.
Collins, A. M., & Quillian, M. R. (1969). Retrieval time from semantic memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 8, 240-247.
Da Polito, F. J., & Struhar, W. J. (1974) Effects of semantic organization on encoding and retrieval in recognition. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 39, 195-201.
de Groot, A. M. B. (1983). The range of automatic spreading activation in word priming. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 417-436.
For more information, questions, or comments, e-mail the authors at: renee_j_26@hotmail.com; captainjuan2@yahoo.com; sarahtowne@usa.net
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