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Masked repetition priming in the lexical decision task was found to be greater when prime validity, defined as the proportion of repetition versus unrelated primes, was high (0.8) rather than low (0.2), even though primes were displayed for only 45 or 60 ms. Prime validity effects did not obtain when targets varied markedly from trial to trial with respect to processing difficulty. This variation appears to cause extensive prime recruitment even when prime validity is low. Reducing variability in target processing difficulty restored the influence of prime validity. Prime validity effects are anticipated by an episodic account of masked priming in which a prime event creates a resource that can be recruited to aid word identification. These effects support the idea that resource recruitment is more likely to occur when the validity of the resource is high, which creates a context that supports prime recruitment. Implications for lexical accounts of masked repetition priming are discussed.

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We compared the effects of item-specific versus relational encoding on recognition memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. In Experiment 1, we directly compared item-specific and relational encoding instructions, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3 we biased pleasantness and generation tasks, respectively, toward one or the other type of processing. A read condition was tested in each experiment for comparison purposes. Across experiments, item-specific and relational encoding both boosted correct recognition relative to reading, but only item-specific encoding typically reduced false recognition. Signal-detection measures revealed that less information was encoded about critical items after item-specific than after relational encoding. In contrast, item-specific and relational encoding led to equivalent increases in strategic monitoring at test (e.g., use of a distinctiveness heuristic). Thus, monitoring at test was less successful after relational than item-specific encoding because more information had been encoded about critical lures.