Repetition and recency effects in word recognition

Abstract

A number of experiments using the lexical decision task have found a repetition effect; when the same words are presented more than once as experimental stimuli, recognition latencies are shorter on the later presentations of those words than they otherwise would have been (Forbach, Stanners, & Hochhaus, 1974; Scarborough, Cortese, & Scarborough, 1977; Scarborough, Gerard, & Cortese, 1979). This effect has been interpreted as automatic (“without mediation by subjects' expectations”, Scarborough et al., 1979) and due simply to recency. An experiment was performed in which one group of subjects, the Repetition group, were presented with some word stimuli twice; another group, the Recency group, were exposed to the same words twice, but only on the second occasion as experimental stimuli; and a Control group saw each word once only, this being as an experimental stimulus. It was found that, while the repetition effect reported in previous experiments was confirmed, there was no evidence of facilitation for the Recency group. It is concluded that the repetition effect is not due to simple recency, but depends on subjects becoming aware of repetitions, and hence adopting some strategy to speed the recognition of repeated words.

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