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ERP Evidence that Disfluency is Resolved by Longer Prime Exposure during Recognition Memory

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Lynne Abraham¹ (), Christian Noguchi¹, Vishwa Mandlewala¹, Sukriti Sawhney¹, P. Andrew Leynes¹; ¹The College of New Jersey

Masked primes alter fluency and recognition memory judgments. Relative to non-letter control primes, Leynes, Kalelkar, et al. (2023) found that priming the target with the same word (match prime) increased fluency, familiarity, and N400 amplitudes. Alternatively, priming with an orthographically similar (OS) word (e.g., “SIGHT” primes “RIGHT”) decreases fluency, familiarity, and N400 amplitudes. The present study manipulated the prime duration (50 ms vs. 200 ms) to measure how awareness of the probe alters fluency and ERPs. Thirty-six participants encoded words using a shallow task and then completed two recognition tests with match and OS primes. On both tests, match primes elicited the same pattern (more positive N400). When the prime was presented quickly on the first test (unaware) the OS prime N400 was more negative than the unprimed control condition, replicating the previous result. The longer prime exposure on the second test (aware) produced a more positive N400 for the OS primes. These results suggest that subthreshold presentation of OS primes create a perceptual discrepancy because they don’t match the target. The processing discrepancy lowers fluency and fewer old responses result. When the prime exposure is longer, the reason for the processing discrepancy becomes obvious, fluency is unaffected, and the overlapping letters increase N400 amplitudes. Exposure duration didn’t alter match prime effects suggesting fluency could not be discounted in this case.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Priming