Structural priming is supported by different components of nondeclarative memory: Evidence from priming across the lifespan

Abstract Structural priming is the tendency to repeat syntactic structure across sentences and can be divided into short-term (prime to immediately following target) and long-term (across an experimental session) components. Current theories of structural priming propose that different memory systems support these components, however, this study investigates how non-declarative memory could support both the transient, short-term and the persistent, long-term structural priming effects commonly seen in the literature. We propose that these characteristics are supported by different subcomponents of non-declarative memory: Perceptual and conceptual non-declarative memory respectively. Previou…