Structural priming: A critical review.

Structural priming: A critical review. Pickering, Martin J. Ferreira, Victor S.

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Structural priming: A critical review. 2008 Psychological Bulletin 10.1037/0033-2909.134.3.427 pickering2008-structural-priming pickering2008-structural-priming.txt, the project's staged copy a8a02dad4e179bab31c261dc00790f5c778aef83 reference-only linguistics

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0 spans located by searching the stored text for the quote's exact words, allowing any whitespace between them existence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. structural priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. review review Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Residual activation (the one-locus account): using a construction leaves its combinatorial node and the lemma linked to it partly activated, so the same structure is cheaper to produce for a while. The lexical boost falls out of the same machinery - a repeated verb re-activates both the lemma AND the strengthened link to the node - which is what makes it ONE locus. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Implicit learning: producing or understanding a structure requires having learned how meaning relationships map onto functional elements and onto constituent order, and every sentence experienced re-weights those mappings. On this account priming is not a trace that decays but the visible edge of the same learning that acquired the grammar. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Observing structural priming does not license the inference that abstract syntax caused it. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The evidence on whether thematic roles affect priming is contradictory and unresolved by this review. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. All cross-linguistic priming evidence comes from typologically and genetically related languages. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Why priming in comprehension usually needs a boost cannot be decided from current evidence. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. priming between production and comprehension, and between writing and speaking, is read as evidence that the two processes draw on the SAME representations - a claim that carries structure across the production/comprehension divide Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. a CONTROL EXPERIMENT in which the primes had the same noun-phrase types but were modified by ADVERBIAL clauses instead of relative clauses eliminates: that the priming comes from the noun phrases or from lexical repetition rather than from the relative-clause structure itself · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. structural priming structural priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. repetition repetition Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. lexical boost lexical boost Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. residual activation residual activation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. implicit learning implicit learning Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. abstract syntactic form abstract syntactic form Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. syntactic priming syntactic priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. dialogue dialogue Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. syntactic persistence syntactic persistence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. structural priming - THE LINGUISTICS SENSE, and it shares almost nothing with the social-psychology sense this corpus is otherwise full of except the word. The prime is a SENTENCE, the primed thing is its STRUCTURE, the response is another sentence, and the effect is defined disjunctively: to repeat OR BETTER PROCESS a current sentence because of its structural similarity to a previously experienced one. No concept is activated, no behaviour is influenced, no attitude is reached Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. structural priming versus syntactic priming - A NAME CHOSEN AGAINST A THEORY, and the clearest instance of it in this corpus. The review drops `syntactic priming` (Pickering's own term from 1999) for `structural priming` on the explicit ground that the old name PRESUPPOSES THE EXISTENCE OF SPECIFICALLY SYNTACTIC REPRESENTATIONS - the very thing the method is used to test. A term retired because it smuggles in the conclusion, with the reason stated in the sentence that retires it Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. priming as a DIAGNOSTIC INSTRUMENT - the reason the field runs these experiments at all, and the review states the logic in general form before applying it: because being affected by repetition depends on how knowledge is represented, the pattern of what does and does not prime is used to READ OFF the representations. The effect is evidence about something else Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. USING priming versus investigating priming - the review's own closing recommendation, and it is this project's central distinction stated by the people who own the term: an investigation USING structural priming should not be cast as an investigation ABOUT structural priming, because when priming is merely a dependent variable the real subject is the representation under test. A field telling itself to keep instrument and object apart Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. one-locus versus two-locus - the field's name for its own open question, and it is a question about IDENTITY rather than about size: is the lexical boost the same mechanism as abstract priming working harder, or a second mechanism altogether? The review states the test that would separate them - a dissociation the two-locus account predicts and the one-locus account does not - and does not claim to have it Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. priming as a METHOD, said in as many words in the review's last sentence - not a phenomenon the field studies but an instrument it expects to keep using, described by its instrumental virtues (strong, versatile, resilient) rather than by what it is Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 'syntactic persistence' - A THIRD CANDIDATE NAME REFUSED, AND ON A DIFFERENT GROUND FROM THE SECOND: 'We also avoid the term SYNTACTIC PERSISTENCE (Bock, 1986) because not all structural priming effects involve perseveration.' A senses row records 'syntactic priming' refused because it PRESUPPOSES A THEORY. This one is refused because its extension is wrong - the name describes a property only some instances have. TWO DIFFERENT WAYS FOR A NAME TO FAIL, IN CONSECUTIVE SENTENCES, and the review distinguishes them without naming the distinction. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 'syntactic priming' - AND A SECOND, INDEPENDENT REASON TO DROP IT: THE NAME IS ALREADY TAKEN. 'Moreover, syntactic priming is also used to refer to the facilitatory effects of a syntactically congruent context on lexical processing.' Not a theoretical objection at all but a COLLISION - the same string already names a different phenomenon in a neighbouring literature, with three citations given. The same shape as 'newman2003' refusing 'connectivity' because graph theory had it first, and another of this record's senses carries only the theory-laden objection. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 'priming' - PROCEDURE OR EFFECT, AND THE REVIEW FLAGS THE AMBIGUITY IN ITS OWN CENTRAL WORD: 'the term priming can also refer to the experimental procedure (and the closely related data that are extracted from natural language corpora) rather than an explanation of the underlying cognitive processes.' A PROCESS/PRODUCT AMBIGUITY - the method that produces the effect, and the effect. A senses row records the review's closing move of treating priming AS a method; this is the review saying at the outset that the word already does both jobs, which is why that closing move is available to it. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. contradicts → functionalist approaches to syntactic structure (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982) and connectionist views that eschew traditional syntactic representations (McClelland, St. John, & Taraban, 1989) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. contradicts → transformational accounts of syntactic production with a deep-structure level (Chomsky, 1965) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. residual activation —causes→ syntactic priming residual activation syntactic priming direction on the measure: increases · strength of the relation: 0.8 · note: Weighted 0.8, not higher, because the review presents this as ONE OF TWO live accounts and declines to choose between them. This span is also the one-locus account's answer to the lexical boost: a repeated verb re-activates the lemma, the strengthened link AND the combinatorial node, so the bigger effect needs no second mechanism. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. syntactic priming —same-as→ structural priming syntactic priming structural priming strength of the relation: 0.95 · note: A DELIBERATE RENAMING WITH THE REASON ATTACHED, and the discarded term is Pickering's own from 1999. The stated ground is that the old name PRESUPPOSES what the method is supposed to test - whether the primed representations are syntactic at all - so the rename is an argument, not a matter of style. Confidence 0.95: the paper states the identity itself. Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but the span says 'structural priming' ENCOMPASSES priming that need not be syntactic; same-as is loose. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. implicit learning —causes→ structural priming implicit learning structural priming direction on the measure: increases · strength of the relation: 0.8 · note: The rival account, at the same weight as residual activation because the review gives it the same standing. 'at least in part' is the field's own hedge, and the review's summary position is that the two accounts may not be as incompatible as is usually assumed. Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but attributed: the span reports 'a view that' structural priming in part reflects implicit learning. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. lexical boost —part-of→ structural priming lexical boost structural priming strength of the relation: 0.9 · note: 'the lexical boost TO structural priming' - the field's own preposition makes it a component of the effect rather than a separate one. Whether it is a separate MECHANISM is exactly what one-locus / two-locus disputes, so the edge records the part relation the term commits to and nothing more. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. structural priming —is-a→ repetition structural priming repetition strength of the relation: 0.9 · note: Recorded because the superordinate is chosen and not obvious: this field files priming under REPETITION - alongside imitation, perseveration and learning - rather than under activation or accessibility, which is where the social-psychology records in this corpus put it. The same word, filed under two different genera. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. In naturally occurring pairs, both members used the same construction in nearly two-thirds of cases, and more so when prime and target shared a verb. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Abstract syntactic form - parts of speech and the phrasal constituents built from them - has a large influence on structural priming, which the review takes as the method's central evidential yield for autonomous syntax while explicitly denying that it is the only thing that primes. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Repeating the verb enhances priming, and in at least one study priming was not significant without verb repetition. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. structural priming structural priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. lexical boost lexical boost Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. syntactic priming syntactic priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 3003 — prepositional-object / double-object sentence pairs Gries identified in a corpus of British English Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. two-thirds — the share of those corpus pairs whose two members used the same construction - priming visible in unarranged speech Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. statistical significance statistical significance Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. verb repetition verb repetition Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution.

The full text of this article is not redistributable, so it is not included here. The evidence sentences are withheld with it; the tag layer and its grounding status remain. The article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.3.427.