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Two recent articles [Gronchi et al., 2018. Automatic and controlled attentional orienting in the elderly: A dual-process view of the positivity effect. Acta Psychologica, 185, 229–234; Wirth & Wentura, 2020. It occurs after all: Attentional bias towards happy faces in the dot-probe task. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82(5), 2463–2481] report attentional biases for happy facial expressions in the dot-probe paradigm, albeit in different directions. While Wirth and Wentura report a bias towards happy expressions, Gronchi et al. found a reversed effect. A striking difference between the studies was the task performed by the participants. While in Wirth and Wentura, participants performed a discrimination task, they performed a location task in Gronchi et al. In Experiment 1, we directly compared the two versions of the dot-probe paradigm. With the discrimination task, the bias towards happy faces was replicated. However, the location task yielded a null effect. In Experiment 2, we found a cueing effect with an abrupt onset cue in both tasks. However, for the location task a congruence-sequence effect (a typical characteristic of response-priming processes) occurred. This result suggests that in the location task, attentional processes are confounded with response-priming processes. We recommend to generally use discrimination tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response priming, motor pre-activations from a prime to the response to a target can be measured, as a function of whether they require the same (compatible) or different (incompatible) responses. With moving primes and static arrow targets, the results depend on the stimulus onset asynchrony between prime and target: with short SOAs, there were faster responses to compatible than incompatible targets, with longer SOAs, the pattern reverses. However, this reversal was not found with more biological motions. The current study comprised 3 experiments in order to replicate several findings from previous research and add evidence regarding the interplay of one’s own and perceived motions. Subjects performed a response priming task with moving prime stimuli while in motion themselves. With this paradigm, we tested the general influence of motion on responding and compatibility effects in response priming with moving prime stimuli. Furthermore, we assessed specific interactions of features of the perceived stimuli (e.g., moving vs. static; direction of the prime or target) and the own motion (e.g., walking vs. standing; direction of being rotated). We used two different own motions (walking on a treadmill, Exp. 1 & 3; rotating in a human gyroscope, Exp. 2) and two different visual stimulus types (rows-of-dots, Exp. 1 & 2; point light displays, Exp. 3). Compatibility effects were, in general, neither increased nor decreased during motion. Their size depended on the stimulus type, the velocity of one’s own motion, and several interactions of perceived and own motion. We discuss our findings with respect to perception-action interactions and previous findings on response priming with moving prime stimuli.

Vogt et al. (2011) investigated the role of goal-relevance in attention. Specifically, they induced the emotional state of disgust and showed an attentional bias (AB) to goal-related stimuli (i.e., cleanliness pictures) using the dot-probe task. In two experiments, we tested (a) an alternative interpretation and (b) the role of an important methodological feature of the dot-probe task. As the effect can be interpreted alternatively as affective counter-regulation (i.e., cleanliness-related pictures attracted attention because they are positive in the negative disgust state), we added positive stimuli to test whether the AB in the disgust state extends to these stimuli. In Experiment 1, we used the location dot-probe task. That is, participants had to categorise the location of the target. It can be argued that this task confounds attentional processes with response priming processes. In Experiment 2, we used a discrimination dot-probe task, that is, participants had to categorise a target feature that varied orthogonally to location, thus eliminating the confound. In Experiment 1, we did not replicate the effect of emotional state on AB for cleanliness stimuli, whereas in Experiment 2, we did. Mean AB scores for positive stimuli were not affected by emotional state. Two conclusions were drawn: First, the result of Experiment 2 supports the motivational account of Vogt and colleagues. Second, the results support the use of the discrimination task for both theoretical reasons (i.e., effects can be more clearly interpreted as based on attentional processes) and empirical reasons (i.e., the location task did not replicate the expected pattern)., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Words can either boost or hinder the processing of visual information, which can lead to facilitation or interference of the behavioral response. We investigated the stage (response execution or target processing) of verbal interference/facilitation in the response priming paradigm with a gender categorization task. Participants in our study were asked to judge whether the presented stimulus was a female or male face that was briefly preceded by a gender word either congruent (prime: “man,” target: “man”), incongruent (prime: “woman,” target: “man”) or neutral (prime: “day,” target: “man”) with respect to the face stimulus. We investigated whether related word-picture pairs resulted in faster reaction times in comparison to the neutral word-picture pairs (facilitation) and whether unrelated word-picture pairs resulted in slower reaction times in comparison to neutral word-picture pairs (interference). We further examined whether these effects (if any) map onto response conflict or aspects of target processing. In addition, identity (“man,” “woman”) and associative (“tie,” “dress”) primes were introduced to investigate the cognitive mechanisms of semantic and Stroop-like effects in response priming (introduced respectively by associations and identity words). We analyzed responses and reaction times using the drift diffusion model to examine the effect of facilitation and/or interference as a function of the prime type. We found that regardless of prime type words introduce a facilitatory effect, which maps to the processes of visual attention and response execution.

Words can either boost or hinder the processing of visual information, which can lead to facilitation or interference of the behavioral response. We investigated the stage (response execution or target processing) of verbal interference/facilitation in the response priming paradigm with a gender categorization task. Participants in our study were asked to judge whether the presented stimulus was a female or male face that was briefly preceded by a gender word either congruent (prime: "man," target: "man"), incongruent (prime: "woman," target: "man") or neutral (prime: "day," target: "man") with respect to the face stimulus. We investigated whether related word-picture pairs resulted in faster reaction times in comparison to the neutral word-picture pairs (facilitation) and whether unrelated word-picture pairs resulted in slower reaction times in comparison to neutral word-picture pairs (interference). We further examined whether these effects (if any) map onto response conflict or aspects of target processing. In addition, identity ("man," "woman") and associative ("tie," "dress") primes were introduced to investigate the cognitive mechanisms of semantic and Stroop-like effects in response priming (introduced respectively by associations and identity words). We analyzed responses and reaction times using the drift diffusion model to examine the effect of facilitation and/or interference as a function of the prime type. We found that regardless of prime type words introduce a facilitatory effect, which maps to the processes of visual attention and response execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response priming experiments, a participant has to respond as quickly and as accurately as possible to a target stimulus preceded by a prime. The prime and the target can either be mapped to the same response (consistent trial) or to different responses (inconsistent trial). Here, we investigate the effects of two sequential primes (each one either consistent or inconsistent) followed by one target in a response priming experiment. We employ discrete-time hazard functions of response occurrence and conditional accuracy functions to explore the temporal dynamics of sequential motor activation. In two experiments (small-N design, 12 participants, 100 trials per cell and subject), we find that (1) the earliest responses are controlled exclusively by the first prime if primes are presented in quick succession, (2) intermediate responses reflect competition between primes, with the second prime increasingly dominating the response as its time of onset is moved forward, and (3) only the slowest responses are clearly controlled by the target. The current study provides evidence that sequential primes meet strict criteria for sequential response activation. Moreover, it suggests that primes can influence responses out of a memory buffer when they are presented so early that participants are forced to delay their responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Response priming refers to the finding that a prime preceding a target influences the response to the target. With German subjects, horizontally moving dots as primes, and static arrows as targets, there are typically faster responses to compatible (i.e., prime and target are associated with the same response) as compared to incompatible targets (i.e., positive compatibility effect, PCE) with short stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). In contrast, with longer SOAs, subjects respond faster to incompatible as compared to compatible targets (i.e., negative compatibility effect, NCE). In the present study, we extended the evidence by adding vertically oriented materials. Furthermore, we tested subjects from Malaysia and Japan, where the vertical orientation is more present in daily life, and compared them to German subjects to investigate whether the amount of experience with one orientation influences the compatibility effects on this orientation. Overall, we found pronounced PCEs in the short SOA (i.e., 150 ms) but only reduced PCEs in the longer SOAs (i.e., 350, 550, and 750 ms) across all countries and orientations. There were no differences between the German and Malaysian samples, but the Japanese sample showed larger PCEs in the longer SOAs compared to both other samples. Furthermore, we found larger PCEs for horizontal than vertical materials in the short SOA and larger PCEs for vertical than horizontal materials in the longer SOAs. We discuss our findings in light of theories and findings on compatibility effects as well as attentional mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new experimental technique to induce dissociations between the visibility of a masked prime and its ability to induce a priming effect in response times. In three experiments, we systematically couple an independent variable known to influence the priming effect (prime-mask SOA) with a variable expected to influence prime visibility but not priming (mask contrast). This way, we create mask-contrast functions where mask contrast either increases with SOA, decreases, or remains constant at maximum or minimum levels. We show that different mask-contrast functions can lead to qualitatively different time courses of masking without affecting the time course of priming, allowing for double dissociations (e.g., increasing priming effects under decreasing prime visibility). For the first time, we demonstrate such double dissociations for response priming by color as well as shape stimuli. We also show that the technique requires stimuli that decouple the mask's ability to mask the prime from its ability to activate the response. We conclude that mask-contrast functions can accentuate or even induce dissociations between priming and masking, opening new possibilities for studying perception without awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We examined the role of conscious perception in response priming. • To this end, we used the liminal-prime paradigm. • We distinguished between semantic priming and priming resulting from S-R learning. • Conscious perception played no role in the retrieval of S-R associations. • Conscious perception enhanced semantic priming on fast and on slow trials. • On slow trials, priming emerged only for conscious semantic priming. Abstract What function does conscious perception serve in human behavior? Many studies relied on unconscious priming to demonstrate that unseen stimuli can be extensively processed. However, showing a small unconscious priming effect falls short of showing that the process underlying such priming is independent of conscious perception. Here, we investigated to what extent the retrieval of learned stimulus-response associations and semantic priming depend on conscious perception by using a liminal-prime paradigm that allows comparing conscious and unconscious processing under the same stimulus conditions. The results revealed two striking dissociations. First, S-R priming was entirely independent of conscious perception, whereas semantic processing was strongly enhanced by it. Second, while priming emerged on fast trials for all conditions, only conscious semantic priming was observed on slow trials. The implications of these findings for the time course of response priming and for the contribution of unconscious processes to fast vs. slow responses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outcome-response (O-R) priming is at the core of various associative theories of human intentional action. This is a simple and parsimonious mechanism by which activation of outcome representations (e.g. thinking about the light coming on) leads to activation of the associated motor patterns required to achieve it (e.g. pushing the light switch). In the current manuscript, we review the evidence for such O-R associative links demonstrated by converging (yet until now, separate) strands of research. While there is a wealth of evidence that both the perceptual and motivational properties of an outcome can be encoded in the O-R association and mediate O-R priming, we critically examine the integration of these mechanisms and the conditions under which motivational factors constrain the sensory O-R priming effect. We discuss the clinical relevance of this O-R priming mechanism, whether it can satisfactorily account for human goal-directed behaviour, and the implications for theories of human action control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) has been hypothesized to modulate γ-aminobutyric (GABA) transmission in the human brain. GABA in the motor cortex is highly correlated to measures of automatic motor inhibition that can be obtained in simple response priming paradigms. To test the effects of tVNS on GABA transmission, we measured tVNS-induced alterations in behavioral and electrophysiology during automatic motor inhibition. Methods Participants were 16 young, healthy adults (8 female) . We combined a subliminal response priming paradigm with tVNS and EEG measurement. In this paradigm, automatic motor inhibition leads to a reversal of the priming effect, a phenomenon referred to as the negative compatibility effect (NCE). We compute the NCE separated by response hands, hypothesizing a modulation of the left-hand NCE. Using EEG we measured readiness potentials, an established electrophysiological index of cortical motor preparation. Results As hypothesized, for the ipsilateral hand/contralateral hemisphere, compared to sham stimulation, tVNS increased the NCE and modulated the electrophysiological readiness potentials. Conclusion Our results indicate that tVNS is selectively affecting the GABAergic system in the motor system contralateral to the stimulated ear as reflected in a behavioral and electrophysiological modulation. Significance We provide first combined behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for direct GABAergic neuromodulation through tVNS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How actions are chosen, and what they are influenced by, has been the focus of several research traditions. Influences on actions are often studied using compatibility paradigms, such as response priming. Here, a first stimulus (i.e., the prime) is presented shortly before a second stimulus (i.e., the target) which has to be classified. Reaction times to the target are often reduced when primes and targets are compatible compared to incompatible primes and targets—i.e., a positive compatibility effect (PCE). There are, however, some conditions in which reliably negative compatibility effects (NCEs), with faster reactions to incompatible targets, are found. Actions in real life are often influenced by perceived motion and are less determined by following (target) stimuli as it is the case in typical response priming studies with predetermined stimulus-response mappings. Thus, in the current experiment we used motion primes in forced-choice trials (with >> and << as targets) as well as in free-choice trials (with <> and >< as targets). Essentially, we found PCEs in the short-SOA condition and NCEs in the long-SOA condition. The pattern was not qualified by task (i.e., forced choice/free choice). The results provide evidence that NCEs with motion primes are found even without strong links between target stimuli and responses and that especially PCEs can be found with simpler and smaller targets than have been used in previous experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examined whether grouping by luminance similarity and grouping by connectedness can occur in the absence of visual awareness, using a priming paradigm and two methods to render the prime invisible, CFS and sandwich masking under matched conditions. For both groupings, significant response priming effects were observed when the prime was reported invisible under sandwich masking, but none were obtained under CFS. These results provide evidence for unconscious grouping, converging with previous findings showing that visual awareness is not essential for certain perceptual organization processes to occur. They are also consistent with findings indicating that processing during CFS is limited, and suggest the involvement of higher visual areas in perceptual organization. Moreover, these results demonstrate that whether a process can occur without awareness is dependent on the level at which the suppression induced by the method used for rendering the stimulus inaccessible to awareness takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 30 years of research, the mechanisms underlying the evaluative priming effect are still a topic of debate. In this study, we tested whether the evaluative priming effect can result from (uncontrolled) associative relatedness rather than evaluative congruency. Stimuli that share the same evaluative connotation are more likely to show some degree of non-evaluative associative relatedness than stimuli that have a different evaluative connotation. Therefore, unless associative relatedness is explicitly controlled for, evaluative priming effects reported in earlier research may be driven by associative relatedness instead of evaluative relatedness. To address this possibility, we performed an evaluative priming study in which evaluative congruency and associative relatedness were manipulated independently from each other. The valent/neutral categorisation task was used to ensure evaluative stimulus processing in the absence of response priming effects. Results showed an effect of associative relatedness but no (overall) effect of evaluative congruency. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling for associative relatedness when testing for evaluative priming effects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent research shows that prior experience and expectations strongly enhance a visual stimulus' access to conscious awareness. However, whether such advance knowledge also influences this stimulus' indirect impact on behavior is poorly understood. The resolution of this question has the potential of providing strong tests between current models of conscious perception because these diverge on whether a factor that affects conscious access by a stimulus necessarily also affects the strength of this stimulus' representation and hence, its indirect impact on behavior. In five experiments we show that three different manipulations of prior experience with a stimulus boosted conscious perception of a similar stimulus (measured using both subjective reports and objective performance) but did not affect its indirect impact on motor action (measured by response priming). In particular, we observed a robust "awareness priming" effect: how clearly a stimulus was subjectively perceived on a recent trial irrespective of its physical strength, strongly affected conscious perception of a similar stimulus on the current trial but did not increase response priming. We discuss the implications of these findings for current models of conscious vision as well as for the study of unconscious processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research showed that priming effects in the affective misattribution procedure (AMP) are unaffected by direct warnings to avoid an influence of the primes. The present research examined whether a priming influence is diminished by task procedures that encourage accurate judgments of the targets. Participants were motivated to categorize the affective meaning of nonsense targets accurately by being made to believe that a true word was presented in each trial and by providing feedback on (allegedly) incorrect responses. This condition produced robust priming effects. Priming was however reduced and less reliable relative to more typical AMP conditions in which participants guessed the meaning of openly presented nonsense targets. Affective judgments of nonsense targets were not affected by advance knowledge of the response mapping during the priming phase, which argues against a response-priming explanation of AMP effects. These findings show that affective primes influence evaluative judgments even in conditions in which the motivation to provide accurate responses is high and a priming of motor responses is not possible. Priming effects were however weaker with high accuracy motivation, suggesting that a focus on accurate judgments is an effective strategy to control for an unwanted priming influence in the AMP.

In contour integration, increased difficulty in detection and shape discrimination of a chain of parallel elements (a ladder contour) compared to collinear elements (a snake contour) suggests more extensive processing of ladders than of snakes. In addition, conceptual similarities between ladders and textures - which also involve grouping of parallel elements - raises the question whether ladder and texture processing requires feedback from higher visual areas while snakes are processed in a fast feedforward sweep. We tested this in a response priming paradigm, where participants responded as quickly and accurately as possible to the orientation of a diagonal contour in a Gabor array (target). The diagonal was defined either by a snake, ladder, texture, or a continuous line. The target was preceded with varying stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) by a prime that was either a snake, ladder, or texture, and was consistent or inconsistent to the response demands of the target. Resulting priming effects clearly distinguished between processing of snakes, ladders, and textures. Effects generally increased with SOA but were stronger for snakes and textures compared to ladders. Importantly, only priming effects for snakes were fully present already in the fastest response times, in accordance with a simple feedforward processing model. We conclude that snakes, ladders, and textures do not share similar processing characteristics, with snakes exhibiting a pronounced processing advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Response priming in general is a suitable tool in cognitive psychology to investigate motor preactivations. Typically, compatibility effects reflect faster reactions in cases in which prime and target suggest the same response (i.e., compatible trials) compared with cases in which prime and target suggest opposite responses (i.e., incompatible trials). With moving dots that were horizontally aligned, Bermeitinger () found a stable pattern of results: with short SOAs, faster responses in compatible trials were found; with longer SOAs up to 250 ms, faster responses in incompatible trials were found. It is unclear whether these results are specific to the special motion used therein or whether it generalizes to other motions. We therefore used other motions realized by arrangements of dots. In four experiments, we tested point-light displays (biological coherent walkers vs. less biological scrambled/split displays) as primes. In two experiments, eye gaze motions realized by moving dots representing irises and pupils (i.e., biological) versus the same motion either without surrounding face information or integrated in an abstract line drawing (i.e., less biological) were used. We found overall large positive compatibility effects with biological motion primes and also positive-but smaller-compatibility effects with less biological motion primes. Most important, also with very long SOAs (up to 1320 ms), we did not find evidence for negative compatibility effects. Thus, the pattern of positive-followed-by-negative-compatibility effects found in Bermeitinger () seems to be specific to the materials used therein, whereas response priming in general seems an applicable tool to study motion perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task-irrelevant spatial location of a cue stimulus affects the processing of a subsequent target. This 'Posner effect' has been explained by an exogenous attention shift to the spatial location of the cue, improving perceptual processing of the target. We studied whether the left/right location of task-irrelevant and uninformative tones produces cueing effects on the processing of visual targets. Tones were presented randomly from left or right. In the first condition, the subsequent visual target, requiring response either with the left or right hand, was presented peripherally to left or right. In the second condition, the target was a centrally presented left/right-pointing arrow, indicating the response hand. In the third condition, the tone and the central arrow were presented simultaneously. Data were recorded on compatible (the tone location and the response hand were the same) and incompatible trials. Reaction times were longer on incompatible than on compatible trials. The results of the second and third conditions are difficult to explain with the attention-shift model emphasizing improved perceptual processing in the cued location, as the central target did not require any location-based processing. Consequently, as an alternative explanation they suggest response priming in the hand corresponding to the spatial location of the tone. Simultaneous lateralized readiness potential ( LRP) recordings were consistent with the behavioral data, the tone cues eliciting on incompatible trials a fast preparation for the incorrect response and on compatible trials preparation for the correct response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an innovative variant of the response-priming paradigm, ten Brinke et al. (2014) seemingly found evidence for unconscious lie detection. In the present study, however, we conducted a reanalysis of this experiment showing that the data can be explained better by the assumption of a gender bias in facial trustworthiness evaluations than by the assumption of unconscious lie detection abilities. To corroborate the hypothesis that female faces are subjectively perceived as more trustworthy than male faces, we conducted two response-priming experiments: Participants (N s = 39 and 61) had to categorize target words as truth-related or lie-related. These words were preceded by male and female face primes explicitly rated as trustworthy or untrustworthy by an independent sample. First, categorization times showed that trustworthy-appearing faces biased responses towards "truth" and untrustworthy-appearing faces biased responses towards "lie". Second, within the group of trustworthy-appearing faces, there was a gender effect with female faces biasing responses towards "truth" and male faces biasing responses towards "lie". These results suggest that (a) trustworthiness evaluations are biased by face gender and that (b) trustworthiness evaluations can be measured with the response-priming paradigm. • Response priming can be used to measure facial trustworthiness evaluations. • This method reveals a gender bias in facial trustworthiness evaluations. • This bias potentially explains previous findings purportedly providing evidence of unconscious lie detection. • On average, female faces are perceived as more trustworthy than male faces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Conscious perception strongly enhances response priming. • Unconscious semantic priming is relatively weak. • Task demands constrain both conscious and unconscious processing. • Conscious and unconscious priming show diverge on the RT distributions. Finding that invisible primes affect categorization of visible targets (response priming) is held to demonstrate that semantic processing does not require conscious perception. However, the effects are typically very small, they do not indicate whether conscious perception enhances response priming and they often reflect visuo-motor rather than semantic processing. Here, we compared response priming elicited by liminal words when these were clearly seen vs missed, while participants categorized target animals' names. We varied task demands to induce visuo-motor vs semantic processing. Conscious perception strongly enhanced both visuo-motor and semantic response priming. In line with the Action Trigger Hypothesis, task demands modulated processing of both missed and consciously perceived primes. Finally, conscious and unconscious response priming showed diverging patterns on fast and on slow trials, a dissociation suggesting that priming was not contaminated by conscious priming. We conclude that the impact of unconscious stimuli is small and task-dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stimuli can be rendered invisible using a variety of methods and the method selected to demonstrate unconscious processing in a given study often appears to be arbitrary. Here, we compared unconscious processing under continuous flash suppression (CFS) and meta-contrast masking, using similar stimuli, tasks and measures. Participants were presented with a prime arrow followed by a target arrow. They made a speeded response to the target arrow direction and then reported on the prime’s visibility. Perception of the prime was made liminal using either meta-contrast masking (Experiment 1) or CFS (Experiments 2 and 3). Conscious perception of the prime was assessed using a sensitive visibility scale ranging from 0 to 3 and unconscious processing was measured as the priming effect on target discrimination performance of prime-target direction congruency when prime visibility was null. Crucially, in order to ensure that the critical stimuli were equally distant from the limen of consciousness, we sought stimulus and temporal parameters for which the proportion of 0-visibility trials was comparable for the two methods. We found that the method used to prevent conscious perception matters: unconscious processing was substantial with meta-contrast masking but absent with CFS. These findings suggest that CFS allows very little perceptual processing, if at all, and that previous reports of high-level and complex unconscious processing during CFS may result from partial awareness.

Rapid motor responses to visual stimuli can involve both the activation and inhibition of motor responses. Here, we trace the early processing dynamics of response generation, examining whether activation and inhibition events form a strict sequence when elicited by sequential stimuli, as we would expect if motor events are driven by fast, stimulus-triggered feedforward sweeps. We employed identical stimuli in two complementary paradigms. In response priming, responses to a target stimulus are speeded or slowed by a masked prime triggering the same or an alternative response, respectively. By prolonging the prime-target interval, the response-priming effect can reverse to form the negative compatibility effect ( NCE), especially when the mask contains response-relevant features. We report two experiments in which primed pointing movements going in ten possible directions were measured with response-relevant, response-irrelevant, or no masks interleaved between the primes and targets, while selective visual attention was varied. We showed that in response priming, initial responses are controlled exclusively by the prime. In the NCE, however, even the earliest movement phase is controlled jointly by the prime, mask, and target information, and a massive force in counterdirection to the primed response reverses the priming effects specifically for slow responses. We conclude that response priming reflects a strict sequence of feedforward response activations, whereas the activation/inhibition events in the NCE are not strictly serial, but integrate information from the different stimuli over time. Even though the mask features and visual attention modulate the NCE, its major source is a mask-induced, direction-specific thrust reversal of the initial response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate the various mental processes contributing to evaluative priming-that is, more positive judgments for targets preceded by affectively positive, as opposed to negative, prime stimuli. To ensure ecological validity, we employed a priori meaningful landscape pictures as targets and emotional adjectives as visual primes and presented both primes and targets for relatively long durations (>1 s). Prime-related lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) revealed response priming as one source of the significant evaluative priming effect. On the other hand, greater right-frontal positive slow wave in the ERP for pictures following negative, as compared with positive, primes indicated altered impression formation, thus supporting automatic spreading activation and/or affect misattribution accounts. Moreover, target LRPs suggested conscious counter-control to reduce the evaluative priming net effect. Finally, when comparing prime ERPs for two groups of participants showing strong versus weak evaluative priming, we found strong evidence for the role of depth of prime processing: In the weak-effect group, prime words evoked an increased visual P1/N1 complex, a larger posterior P2 component, and a greater left-parietal processing negativity presumably reflecting semantic processing. By contrast, a larger medial-frontal P2/N2 complex in the strong-effect group suggested top-down inhibition of the prime's emotional content. Thus, trying to ignore the primes can actually increase, rather than decrease, the evaluative priming effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the emotional spatial cueing task, a peripheral cue—either emotional or non-emotional—is presented before target onset. A stronger cue validity effect with an emotional relative to a non-emotional cue (i.e., more efficient responding to validly cued targets relative to invalidly cued targets) is taken as an indication of emotional modulation of attentional processes. However, results from previous emotional spatial cueing studies are not consistent. Some studies find an effect at the validly cued location (shorter reaction times compared to a non-emotional cue), whereas other studies find an effect at the invalidly cued location (longer reaction times compared to a non-emotional cue). In the current paper, we explore which parameters affect emotional modulation of the cue validity effect in the spatial cueing task. Results from five experiments in healthy volunteers led to the conclusion that a threatening spatial cue did not affect attention processes but rather indicate that motor processes are affected. A possible mechanism might be that a strong aversive cue stimulus decreases reaction times by means of stronger action preparation. Consequently, in case of a spatially congruent response with the peripheral cue, a stronger cue validity effect could be obtained due to stronger response priming. The implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To date, tactile distractor processing has primarily been investigated by focusing on the spatial characteristics of distractors and the impact of their presentation on the orienting of attention. In two experiments, we examined the influence of tactile distractors when the location of stimulus presentation was kept constant, thus controlling for the effects of spatial attention. A response priming paradigm was used in which two stimuli were sequentially presented from the same (fixated) direction. Typically, target responses are facilitated when the previously presented distractor (i.e., the prime) happens to map on to the same response as compared to the distractor maps on to the opposite response. Similar response priming effects were observed for tactile and visual distractors within a unimodal experimental setting (Experiments 1a and 1b). Interestingly, however, when the targets and distractors were presented in different sensory modalities, only the visual distractors exerted a crossmodal effect on the subsequent processing of vibrotactile targets (Experiment 2). These results therefore indicate that visual stimuli automatically trigger their corresponding response even when the task at hand is not visual, whereas tactile stimuli are only processed up to the level of response generation when the participants' task is tactile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to social cognition textbooks, stereotypes are activated automatically if appropriate categorical cues are processed. Although many studies have tested effects of activated stereotypes on behavior, few have tested the process of stereotype activation. Blair and Banaji (1996) demonstrated that subjects were faster to categorize first names as male or female if those were preceded by gender congruent attribute primes. The same, albeit smaller, effects emerged in a semantic priming design ruling out response priming by Banaji and Hardin (1996). We sought to replicate these important effects. Mirroring Blair and Banaji (1996) we found strong priming effects as long as response priming was possible. However, unlike Banaji and Hardin (1996), we did not find any evidence for automatic stereotype activation, when response priming was ruled out. Our findings suggest that automatic stereotype activation is not a reliable and global phenomenon but is restricted to more specific conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's ability to resist cognitive distraction is crucial in many situations. The present research examines individuals' resistance to attentionai distraction under conditions of evaluative pressure. In a series of 4 studies, participants had to complete various attentional tasks while believing their intelligence was or was not under the scrutiny of an experimenter. Using a spatial cuing paradigm. Studies 1 through 3 demonstrated that feeling evaluated led participants to implement stronger feature-hased attentional control, which resulted in more (or less) distraction when iiTelevant information matched (did not match) the searched-for target. Study 4 ruled out the possibility that the above effects were due to voluntary shifts of attention and demonstrated that the control settings implemented under evaluative pressure resulted in stronger goal-contingent response priming. Thus, the way individuals relate to the task--the performance context in which they are--induces strong attentional selection biases. Altogether, the present findings highlight an overlooked form of top-down modulation of attention based on performance self-relevance. Implications for both the current models of attentional control and the current hypotheses on the impact of evaluative pressure on cognition, as well as the consequences for more complex performances, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Findings from three experiments support the conclusion that auditory primes facilitate the processing of related targets. In Experiments 1 and 2, we employed a crossmodal Stroop color identification task with auditory color words (as primes) and visual color patches (as targets). Responses were faster for congruent priming, in comparison to neutral or incongruent priming. This effect also emerged for different levels of time compression of the auditory primes (to 30 % and 10 % of the original length; i.e., 120 and 40 ms) and turned out to be even more pronounced under high-perceptual-load conditions (Exps. 1 and 2). In Experiment 3, target-present or -absent decisions for brief target displays had to be made, thereby ruling out response-priming processes as a cause of the congruency effects. Nevertheless, target detection ( d') was increased by congruent primes (30 % compression) in comparison to incongruent or neutral primes. Our results suggest semantic object-based auditory-visual interactions, which rapidly increase the denoted target object's salience. This would apply, in particular, to complex visual scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We compare metacontrast-masking time course on direct and indirect perception measures. [•] Direct and indirect measures of perception follow the same time course. [•] Subjective and objective direct measures index the same conscious mechanisms. [•] We demonstrate unconscious processing using response priming. [•] Attention, not consciousness, determines the time course of metacontrast masking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual stimuli can be classified so rapidly that their analysis may be based on a single sweep of feedforward processing through the visuomotor system. Behavioral criteria for feedforward processing can be evaluated in response priming tasks where speeded pointing or keypress responses are performed towards target stimuli which are preceded by prime stimuli. We apply this method to several classes of complex stimuli. 1) When participants classify natural images into animals or non-animals, the time course of their pointing responses indicates that prime and target signals remain strictly sequential throughout all processing stages, meeting stringent behavioral criteria for feedforward processing (rapid-chase criteria). 2) Such priming effects are boosted by selective visual attention for positions, shapes, and colors, in a way consistent with bottom-up enhancement of visuomotor processing, even when primes cannot be consciously identified. 3) Speeded processing of phobic images is observed in participants specifically fearful of spiders or snakes, suggesting enhancement of feedforward processing by long-term perceptual learning. 4) When the perceived brightness of primes in complex displays is altered by means of illumination or transparency illusions, priming effects in speeded keypress responses can systematically contradict subjective brightness judgments, such that one prime appears brighter than the other but activates motor responses as if it was darker. We propose that response priming captures the output of the first feedforward pass of visual signals through the visuomotor system, and that this output lacks some characteristic features of more elaborate, recurrent processing. This way, visuomotor measures may become dissociated from several aspects of conscious vision. We argue that "fast" visuomotor measures predominantly driven by feedforward processing should supplement "slow" psychophysical measures predominantly based on visual awareness.

Recent studies have demonstrated that masked gaze cues can produce a cueing effect. Those studies, however, all utilized a localization task and, hence, are ambiguous with respect to whether the previously observed masked gaze-cueing effect reflects the orienting of attention or the preparation of a motor response. The aim of the present study was to investigate this issue by determining whether masked gaze cues can modulate responses in detection and discrimination tasks, both of which isolate spatial attention from response priming. First, we found a gaze-cueing effect for unmasked cues in detection, discrimination, and localization tasks, which suggests that the gaze-cueing effect for visible cues is not task dependent. Second, and in contrast, we found a gaze-cueing effect for masked cues in a localization task, but not in detection or discrimination tasks, which suggests that the gaze-cueing effect for masked cues is task dependent. Therefore, the present study shows that the masked gaze-cueing effect is attributed to response priming, as opposed to the orienting of spatial attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A new method is presented to compare grouping cues in fast visuomotor processing. [•] This primed flanker task is tested with similarity cues (brightness, shape, size). [•] Cues and grouping strength conjointly determine visuomotor processing. [•] Thus, the task differentiates between feedforward-mediated base groupings. [•] The task is established as an objective method to study grouping cues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Trait anxiety has long been associated with impaired selective attention to task-irrelevant threat stimuli, both when threat is presented consciously and outside of awareness. However recent research has suggested broader deficits in selective attention, with poorer ability to ignore supraliminal non-emotional information in anxiety. Here, we investigated whether anxiety could equally be associated with poorer selective attention for non-emotional stimuli in a subliminal context. Participants performed a simple arrow discrimination task, where prior incompatible or compatible response primes were presented before targets either unmasked (supraliminal) or masked (subliminal). While distractor interference was evident in both conditions, trait anxiety was associated with increased task-irrelevant processing only in the supraliminal condition; group effects were eliminated when primes were masked. Our findings are in line with traditional accounts suggesting that differences in selective attention and cognitive control solely modulate conscious distractor processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to classical theories, automatic processes operate independently of attention. Recent evidence, however, shows that masked visuomotor priming, an example of an automatic process, depends on attention to visual form versus semantics. In a continuation of this approach, we probed feature-specific attention within the perceptual domain and tested in two event-related potential ( ERP) studies whether masked visuomotor priming in a shape decision task specifically depends on attentional sensitization of visual pathways for shape in contrast to color. Prior to the masked priming procedure, a shape or a color decision task served to induce corresponding task sets. ERP analyses revealed visuomotor priming effects over the occipitoparietal scalp only after the shape, but not after the color induction task. Thus, top-down control coordinates automatic processing streams in congruency with higher-level goals even at a fine-grained level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]