On the role of bias in dissociated phonological priming effects: A reply to Goldinger (1999)

Phonological priming studies have revealed two dissociated effects: low-similarity facilitation and high-similarity interference (Hamburger & Slowiaczek, 1996, Slowiaczek dt Hamburger, 1992). Because these two effects are influenced by differ ent variables, they most likely reflect different processes that occur during auditory word recognition. Goldinger (1999) suggests that one bias is responsible for all phonological priming effects. In this reply we argue against such a position. Although low similarity facilitation is likely the product of this bias, the data on phonological priming indicate that the dissociated high-similarity interference cannot be produced by the same mechanism. Instead, the data indicate that high-similarity interference may, reflect lexical processes.