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In an exogenous cueing task repeating a non-spatial feature can benefit performance if the feature is task-relevant to a discrimination response. Previous studies reporting this effect have used complex displays. In the current study, we look at the generalizability of this effect, by extending it to a simple exogenous cueing paradigm in which the cue and target displays each consist of single-object onsets. We also investigate the influence of task-relevant and irrelevant features independently within the same experiment. Consistent with previous studies, we find non-spatial feature repetition benefits in all three experiments. Importantly, and unlike previous studies, we find that the most salient, rather than the task-relevant, feature drives the non-spatial feature repetition benefit. Furthermore, in addition to the previously observed non-spatial feature repetition benefits, we also found a spatially specific feature repetition benefit. We argue that these new findings are consistent with habituation accounts of attentional cueing effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mind wandering is associated with perceptual decoupling: the disengagement of attention from perception. This decoupling is deleterious to performance in many situations; however, we sought to determine whether it might occur in the service of performance in certain circumstances. In two studies, we examined the role of mind wandering in a test of 'semantic satiation,' a phenomenon in which the repeated presentation of a word reduces semantic priming for a subsequently presented semantic associate. We posited that the attentional and perceptual decoupling associated with mind wandering would reduce the amount of satiation in the semantic representations of repeatedly presented words, thus leading to a reduced semantic-satiation effect. Our results supported this hypothesis: Self-reported mind-wandering episodes (Study 1) and behavioral indices of decoupled attention (Study 2) were both predictive of maintained semantic priming in situations predicted to induce semantic satiation. Additionally, our results suggest that moderate inattention to repetitive stimuli is not sufficient to enable 'dishabituation': the refreshment of cognitive performance that results from diverting attention away from the task at hand. Rather, full decoupling is necessary to reap the benefits of mind wandering and to minimize mind numbing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated whether binding among perception and action feature codes is a preliminary step toward creating a more durable memory trace of an action event. If so, increasing the frequency of a particular event (e.g., a stimulus requiring a movement with the left or right hand in an up or down direction) should increase the strength and speed of feature binding for this event. The results from two experiments, using a partial-repetition paradigm, confirmed that feature binding increased in strength and/or occurred earlier for a high-frequency (e.g., left hand moving up) than for a low-frequency (e.g., right hand moving down) event. Moreover, increasing the frequency of the first-specified feature in the action sequence alone (e.g., 'left' hand) increased the strength and/or speed of action feature binding (e.g., between the 'left' hand and movement in an 'up' or 'down' direction). The latter finding suggests an update to the theory of event coding, as not all features in the action sequence equally determine binding strength. We conclude that action planning involves serial binding of features in the order of action feature execution (i.e., associations among features are not bidirectional but are directional), which can lead to a more durable memory trace. This is consistent with physiological evidence suggesting that serial order is preserved in an action plan executed from memory and that the first feature in the action sequence may be critical in preserving this serial order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have shown that repetition of search-relevant attributes facilitates visual search performance. For example, Maljkovic and Nakayama () showed that when observers search for a target defined by its color and report its shape, repetition of the target color speeds search, an effect known as priming of pop-out. While intertrial feature priming in search was initially thought to affect perceptual processes, the idea that it also affects postselection stages of processing is increasingly acknowledged. However, because in previous studies repetition of the motor response has typically been confounded with repetition of the response feature, it is not clear what mechanisms underlie the postselection effect of intertrial priming. In the present study, we dissociated the two repetition types. The results showed that repetition of the target-defining attribute from the previous trial affects selection of the motor response but not discrimination of the response attribute. The implications for current accounts of intertrial priming are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: T2 in an attentional blink paradigm served as a high- or low-frequency prime word for a subsequent repeated target. Consistent with research in visual word identification, only reported primes facilitated the identification of a target repeated approximately 8s after RSVP. Priming was greater for low- than high-frequency words. Analogous with masked priming, a blinked T2 facilitated report of a repeated target occurring 318ms after T2 in RSVP. The blinked repetition priming effect was additive with target frequency. These results indicate that: (1) the outcomes of processing prime words are a key factor in repetition priming effects, with blinked and reported T2s behaving like masked and unmasked primes, respectively, (2) there may be different sources of repetition effects, (3) there is a consistent cross-paradigm pattern of repetition effects that occurs as a function of prime–target interval and the ability to identify the word on its first and second presentation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In previous research on priming (reactivation) with 3-month-olds, two primes recovered a forgotten memory faster than one, suggesting that prior priming had increased the accessibility of the forgotten memory. Exploiting the fact that the minimum duration of a prime indexes the accessibility of the forgotten memory, we currently examined whether prior priming also reduces the minimum effective prime duration. In three experiments, 60 3-month-olds learned an operant task, forgot it, and then were exposed to successive primes either 1 day and 1 week after forgetting (Experiment 1) or 1 and 2 weeks after forgetting (Experiment 2). In both cases, prior priming reduced the minimum duration of the second prime, a result that was independent of the duration of the first prime (Experiment 3). These findings confirm that priming increases the accessibility of a latent memory and raise the possibility that repeated priming underlies the extended memorability of persons and events that infants encounter sporadically. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Priming effects of ignored distractor words were investigated in a task-switching situation that allowed an orthogonal variation of priming and response compatibility between prime and probe. Across 3 experiments, the authors obtained a disordinal interaction of priming and response relation. Responding was delayed in the ignored repetition condition if different responses were required for identical stimuli in the prime and probe (negative priming). Repeating the prime distractor in the probe facilitated responding if the same response was required in the prime and in the probe (positive priming). The same pattern of results was replicated in a letter-matching task without task switching (Experiment 4). Findings lend support to a new model that explains negative priming in terms of an automatic retrieval of incidental stimulus-response associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects viewed visually presented words, some of which occurred twice. Each trial consisted of two colored letter strings, the requirement being to attend to and make a word/nonword discrimination for one of the strings. Attention was manipulated by color in Experiment 1, and color and a precue were used in Experiment 2. As in previous ERP studies of word repetition, a positive offset to repeated words developed when both first and second presentations were the focus of attention. In Experiment 2, ERPs showed evidence of positive-going repetition effects in all conditions in which at least one of the two presentations of the repeated word was attended. In the visual modality, the positive-going ERP repetition effect occurs only when at least one of the two presentations of a repeated item is the object of attention, which suggests that one or more of the processes reflected by the effect is capacity limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]