Affective priming of pronunciation responses: effects of target degradation

In studies on affective priming of pronunciation responses, participants are asked to read target words that are preceded by prime words with the same (e.g., CANCER–UGLY) or a different (e.g., BIRTHDAY–UGLY) valence. Previous studies revealed a mixed pattern of results. We report the results of an experiment in which we observed shorter reaction times on trials where the prime and target had the same valence compared to trials where the valence of the two stimuli differed. However, this effect occurred only when target words were degraded (e.g., %U%G%L%Y%). The results suggest that affective priming of pronunciation responses is a genuine phenomenon that appears to be more robust when targets are degraded