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Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages

Buchanan, Erin M ; Cuccolo, Kelly ; Heyman, Tom ; van Berkel, Niels ; Coles, Nicholas A ; Iyer, Aishwarya ; Peters, Kim ; van 't Veer, A E ; Montefinese, Maria and Maxwell, Nicholas P , et al. (2025) In Nature Human Behaviour
Abstract

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we measured the size and the variability of the semantic priming effect across 19 languages (n = 25,163 participants analysed) by creating the largest available database of semantic priming values using an adaptive sampling procedure. We found evidence for semantic priming in terms of differences in response latencies between related word-pair conditions and unrelated word-pair conditions. Model... (More)

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we measured the size and the variability of the semantic priming effect across 19 languages (n = 25,163 participants analysed) by creating the largest available database of semantic priming values using an adaptive sampling procedure. We found evidence for semantic priming in terms of differences in response latencies between related word-pair conditions and unrelated word-pair conditions. Model comparisons showed that the inclusion of a random intercept for language improved model fit, providing support for variability in semantic priming across languages. This study highlights the robustness and variability of semantic priming across languages and provides a rich, linguistically diverse dataset for further analysis. The Stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 15 July 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://osf.io/u5bp6 (registration) or https://osf.io/q4fjy (preprint version 6, 31 May 2022).

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
in
Nature Human Behaviour
pages
25 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:40993402
ISSN
2397-3374
DOI
10.1038/s41562-025-02254-x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
id
4e43419b-ad3f-40b3-a3cf-718b05f5340d
date added to LUP
2025-10-01 16:13:08
date last changed
2025-10-23 08:33:30
@article{4e43419b-ad3f-40b3-a3cf-718b05f5340d,
  abstract     = {{<p>Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we measured the size and the variability of the semantic priming effect across 19 languages (n = 25,163 participants analysed) by creating the largest available database of semantic priming values using an adaptive sampling procedure. We found evidence for semantic priming in terms of differences in response latencies between related word-pair conditions and unrelated word-pair conditions. Model comparisons showed that the inclusion of a random intercept for language improved model fit, providing support for variability in semantic priming across languages. This study highlights the robustness and variability of semantic priming across languages and provides a rich, linguistically diverse dataset for further analysis. The Stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 15 July 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://osf.io/u5bp6 (registration) or https://osf.io/q4fjy (preprint version 6, 31 May 2022).</p>}},
  author       = {{Buchanan, Erin M and Cuccolo, Kelly and Heyman, Tom and van Berkel, Niels and Coles, Nicholas A and Iyer, Aishwarya and Peters, Kim and van 't Veer, A E and Montefinese, Maria and Maxwell, Nicholas P and Taylor, Jack E and Valentine, Kathrene D and Arriaga, Patrícia and Barzykowski, Krystian and Boucher, Leanne and Collins, W Matthew and Vaidis, David C and Aczel, Balazs and Al-Hoorie, Ali H and Ambrosini, Ettore and Besson, Théo and Burin, Debora I and Butt, Muhammad Mussaffa and Clarke, A J Benjamin and Daryani, Yalda and El-Dakhs, Dina Abdel Salam and Elsherif, Mahmoud M and Fernández-López, Maria and Ferreira, Paulo Roberto Dos Santos and Freitag, Raquel Meister Ko and Gattei, Carolina A and Godbersen, Hendrik and Grim, Philip A and Halama, Peter and Havan, Patrik and Irrazabal, Natalia C and Isloi, Chris and Iversen, Rebecca Kvisler and Julliard, Yoann and Karaaslan, Aslan and Kohút, Michal and Kohútová, Veronika and Kos, Julija and Kosachenko, Alexandra I and Lima, Tiago Jessé Souza de and Mak, Matthew H C and Manouilidou, Christina and Marciaga, Leonardo A and Melinna, Xiaolin Melinna and Miranda, Jacob Francisco and Morvinski, Coby and Muppoor, Aishwarya and Müjdeci, F Elif and Nielsen, Yngwie A and Oliveros, Juan Carlos and Onič, Jaš and Papadatou-Pastou, Marietta and Patel, Ishani and Pavlović, Zoran and Pažon, Blaž and Pfuhl, Gerit and Pronizius, Ekaterina and Roettger, Timo B and Ronderos, Camilo R and Ruiz-Fernandez, Susana and Senderecka, Magdalena and Solak, Çağlar and Stückler, Anna and Szekely-Copîndean, Raluca D and Taboh, Analí R and Thériault, Rémi and Tran, Ulrich S and Trecca, Fabio and Ulloa, José Luis and Varga, Marton A and Verheyen, Steven and Vesić Pavlović, Tijana and Viviani, Giada and Wang, Nan and Zivna, Kristyna and Yun, Chen Chu and Clark, Oliver James and Acar, Oguz A and Adamkovič, Matúš and Agnoletti, Giulia and Akil, Atakan M and Alsuhaibani, Zainab and Amenta, Simona and Ananyeva, Olga A and Andreychik, 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  issn         = {{2397-3374}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Human Behaviour}},
  title        = {{Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02254-x}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41562-025-02254-x}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}