The influence of prime characteristics in semantic priming

The semantic priming effect refers to the finding that processing a target word is facilitated when it is preceded by a related prime compared to an unrelated prime, and the semantic priming paradigm has been a key way to examine how knowledge is organized and retrieved. Both automatic and strategic processing of the prime can contribute to the semantic priming effect, and a major challenge in developing an integrated account of semantic priming is delineating conditions where the effect is driven by automatic or strategic processing of the prime. We incorporate literature reviews, meta-analyses, and studies with original experiments to examine how numerous factors influence the automatic and strategic processing of the prime, and thus the semantic priming effect. Specifically, we discuss the foundational models of semantic priming, and the automatic and strategic mechanisms by which primes are thought to influence their targets. We then discuss how prime-level lexical and semantic properties, prime-target relational factors, modality and presentation variables, and task-level determinants influence the automatic and strategic processing of the prime. We also point out gaps in the literature and suggest next steps in developing an integrated account of semantic priming.