Semantic priming effects from single words in a lexical decision task

Inhibitory mechanisms in single negative priming from ignored and briefly flashed primes: The key role of the inter-stimulus interval

“…This result, which replicates that of Ortells, Daza & et al, 2003;; see also Noguera et al (2007), indicates that a sufficiently long ISI indeed triggers reliable NP. However, with the lengthening of the mask-target ISI (700 ms), the prime-target SOA also became longer (830 ms instead of 600 ms in Experiments 1 and 2 and in the short ISI in the current experiment).…”

“…However, the post-test was performed only at the end of the experimental session. Besides, participants' self-reports of prime awareness and their individual d 0 scores in a visibility test of masked words did not interact significantly with priming effects in either the present study or previous related studies (Ortells, Daza & et al, 2003;Noguera et al, 2007). Therefore the present results cannot be attributed to differential prime awareness.…”

“…This pattern of results coincides well with the assumptions of inhibitory models that (a) attentional inhibition is applied to the internal representations of ignored stimuli after they have been automatically activated, so that (b) inhibition is preceded by some period of activation, and (c) inhibition requires time to develop (e.g., Allport et al, 1985;Neill & Westberry, 1987;Ortells et al, 2001;Yee, 1991). More important, the present results extend the inhibitory account by demonstrating that NP depends on a long ISI in addition to a long SOA, and a long SOA alone (which provided enough time in Noguera et al, 2007) is not sufficient. This is because formation of inhibition depends upon the disappearance of the distractor/mask located at the position where the target will appear.…”

“…The account proposed here could also be used to explain the significant NP demonstrated in Experiments 4 and 5 of Noguera et al (2007). These experiments showed significant negative priming effects when the ignored and brief prime was followed by a 50-ms mask and then by a 500-ms mask-target ISI.…”

“…NP is assumed to occur with responses to a target on the probe display that are slower or less accurate when the target either matches, or shares attributes with, a recently ignored distractor on the prime display. Many studies have attributed this Presenting the prime for a relatively short time (e.g., 50 ms or less) and then masking it (i.e., weak activation) (e.g., Neill & Kahan, 1999;Neill et al, 1996;Noguera et al, 2007). For example, in , negative priming emerged not only when the first stimulus was actively ignored but also when the duration of the prime was limited to 50 ms (or 20 ms) and a mask followed.…”