Table 2.
Examples for which the contrasted conditions are not matched on general task difficulty due to task set, word frequency, ambiguity, or priming effects
| Hard word condition | Easy word condition | ||
| Stimulus, for example | Task | Stimulus, for example | Task |
| horse | Generate associated word | horse | Read |
| — | Generate names of animals | — | Generate months of the year |
| horse | Is it living or nonliving? | horse | Read silently |
| impala | Is it living or nonliving? | horse | Is it living or nonliving? |
| horse | Is it living or nonliving? | horse (repeated) | Is it living or nonliving? |
| horse | Is it living or nonliving? | zebra | Does it contain the letter ‘a'? |
| horse, zebra | Are they related in meaning? | horse, horse | Are they identical? |
| house, zebra | Are they related in meaning? | horse, horse | Are they the same font size? |
| house, zebra | Are they related in meaning? | horse, ZEBRA | Are they the same case? |
| bank, river | Are they related in meaning? | lake, river | Are they related in meaning? |
| house, zebra | Is the second item a word? | horse, zebra | Is the second item a word? |
Note: All examples are from the studies reviewed.