As expected, people pressed the button faster when recognizing ant, which is related to bug, than when recognizing sew, which is unrelated. Surprisingly, people were just as primed to recognize the word spy, which is, of course, related to bug, but only to the meaning that makes no sense in the context. It suggests that the brain knee-jerkingly activates both entries for bug, even though one of them could sensibly be ruled out beforehand. The irrelevant meaning is not around long: if the test word appeared on the screen three syllables after bugs instead of right after it, then only ant was
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