Retrieval of incidental stimulus-response associations as a source of negative priming. (original) (raw)

The crucial roles of stimulus matching and stimulus identity in negative priming

2002

Negative priming refers to the situation in which an ignored item on an initial prime trial suffers slowed responding when it becomes the target item on a subsequent probe trial. In this experiment (and a replication), we demonstrate two ways in which stimulus consistency (matching) governs negative priming. First, negative priming for identical words occurred only when the prime distractor changed color when it became the probe target (i.e., constant cue to read the red word); negative priming disappeared when the prime distractor retained its color as the probe target (i.e., cue switches from read the red prime word to read the white probe word). Second, negative priming occurred for identical words, but not for semantically related words, whether related categorically or associatively. This pattern of results is consistent with a memory retrieval account, but not with an inhibition account of negative priming, and casts doubt on whether there is semantic negative priming for words.

Negative priming and stimulus familiarity: What causes opposite results?

Memory & Cognition, 2003

There has been a discrepancy among past studies with regard to the relation between negative priming and familiarity of stimuli. That is, reported that the more familiar the stimuli were, the larger negative priming became (i.e., a positive correlation), whereas reported that the less familiar the stimuli were, the larger negative priming became (i.e., a negative correlation). These studies differ not only in their experimental tasks (identification vs. matching) but also in their respective manners of arranging unfamiliar stimuli (pure vs. mixed). In the present study, using an identical set of stimuli, we examined whether these factors caused the opposite results. An identification task with a pure arrangement produced a positive correlation, and a matching task with a mixed arrangement produced a negative correlation. These results suggest that the past opposing results are both replicable and that they have reflected the different causal mechanisms of negative priming.

Negative Priming Persists in the Absence of Response-Retrieval

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie), 2013

The hypothesis that retrieval of the prime response is responsible for the negative priming (NP) effect has gained popularity in recent studies of visual identity NP. In the current study we report an experiment in which we aimed to remove the response from the prime memory trace by means of spatio-temporal separation. Compared to an identical experiment without this separation (Ihrke et al., 2011), we find that the response-retrieval-specific interaction is absent indicating that the separation was successful in preventing response-retrieval. Still, both negative and positive priming are present as main effects which show that processes other than response-retrieval can produce NP. In addition, based on recordings of the eye-movements during task processing, we localize the NP effect in a target-selection process while positive priming manifests in facilitated response-selection. Our results are in line with a multiple-route view of NP.

Negative priming and perceptual fluency: More than what meets the eye

Perception & Psychophysics, 2001

In two priming experiments, we manipulated the perceptual quality of the target or the distractor on the prime trial; the stimuli were repeated or novel. Negative priming was found to be contingent on stimulus repetition, because it was obtained with repeated items but not with novel items. Prime trial perceptual degradation modulated negative priming for repeated items but had no effect on priming in ignored repetition conditions using novel stimuli. These patterns were obtained even when the effect of perceptual degradation was (1) greater than the effect of stimulus repetition and (2) greater for novel words than for repeated words. Although stimulus repetition increases perceptual fluency, the activation of perceptual representations by itself is not sufficient to produce negative priming. Instead, we suggest that negative priming is a manifestation of an activation-sensitive inhibitory mechanism that functions to reduce response competition.

Negative priming and stimulus repetition: A reply to Neill and Joordens (2002)

Negative priming is reliably obtained with repeated items, but not with novel items. Here, we review why these stimulus repetition effects raise problems for memorybased theories of negative priming. Furthermore, we provide empirical evidence casting doubt on Neill and claim that perceptual facilitation masks the effects of episodic retrieval with novel items. Finally, we discuss several theoretical and methodological issues raised in the reply by Neill and Joordens. We conclude that a more straightforward interpretation of these stimulus repetition effects is one based on activation-sensitive inhibition.

On distractor-repetition benefits in the negative-priming paradigm

Visual Cognition, 2007

The present study investigates the effects of distractor repetitions between prime and probe displays on behaviour in the negative-priming (NP) paradigm. Investigating this condition is theoretically significant because inhibition-based accounts and episodic retrieval accounts of NP on one side and the temporaldiscrimination theory on the other side make opposite predictions with regard to the effects of distractor repetition. In particular, the former accounts predict distractor-repetition benefits while the latter theory does not. Two experiments further explored the distractor-repetition effects. Experiment 1 replicated previous findings. Experiment 2 further showed that distractor-repetition benefits are still observed when the prime-display distractor and the probe-display target are not correlated. The pattern of results is consistent both with inhibition-based and with retrieval-based accounts of NP, but the results are inconsistent with temporaldiscrimination theory.

Dissociating object-and response-based components of negative priming through effects of practice

2005

Abstract The negative priming (NP) effect is the slowing of responses to an imperative stimulus (probe) that has recently been ignored (prime). Prevailing accounts of the phenomenon attribute it to a variety of causes, all centered on a representation of the stimulus event itself. However, we argue that the most commonly used NP paradigms confound stimulus-and response-based factors.

Stimulus-feature specific negative priming

Memory & Cognition, 2001

We report the results of two experiments that showed that the time needed to respond to a feature of a stimulus increases when that particular feature of that particular stimulus previously had to be ignored. The data of Experiment 2 argue against the hypothesis that the observed stimulus-feature specific negative priming was due to a response conflict instigated by automatic episodic retrieval of prime responses. Experiment 2 also showed that the effects were not caused by difficulties in switching between prime and probe tasks and provided additional evidence for the fact that priming effects were stimulusfeature specific. The present results suggest that the selective inhibition or episodic encoding mechanisms that are assumed to underlie negative priming can operate in a more specific and powerful manner than has been previously assumed.

Selective attention: A reevaluation of the implications of negative priming

Psychological Review, 1998

The notion that inhibitory processes play a critical role in selective attention has gained wide support. Much of this support derives from studies of negative priming. The authors note that the attribution of negative priming to an inhibitory mechanism of attention draws its support from a common assumption underlying priming procedures, together with the procedure that has been used to measure negative priming. The results from a sexies of experiments demonstrate that selection between 2 competing prime items is not required to observe negative priming. This result is demonstrated across several experiments in which participants named 1 of 2 items in a second display following presentation of a single-item prime. The implications of these results for existing theories of negative priming are discussed, and a theoretical framework for interpreting negative priming and several related phenomena is forwarded.