In the study phase, at their own pace, participants read a list of sentences and observe a set of pictures.
Consider a trial wherein the participant is reading a dative double-object construction, George gave the boy the ball.
[1] At least four theories exist to explain structural priming: syntactic repetition; thematic congruency, derivation of subjects, and error-based learning.
A structure known as the unaccusative, which is unmarked morphologically in English, is capable of priming passive transitive sentences.
For instance, the passive subject is said by some scholars of syntax to be derived via movement, or "smuggling," from the same position where it is generated in the active, to wit, the complement of the transitive verb.