无关工作记忆表征的负性情绪信息能否捕获视觉注意?一项眼动研究

研究通过分析视觉搜索任务的首次注视点和行为反应时, 探讨无关工作记忆表征的负性情绪信息对视觉注意选择的影响。实验1发现在反映早期注意选择的首次注视点百分率指标上, 不管工作记忆表征的情绪效价如何, 均出现了显著的注意捕获效应; 实验2发现当采用中性情绪靶子刺激时, 首次注视点百分率指标上仍表现出了稳健的注意捕获效应; 在首次注视点持续时间指标上, 实验1和实验2均发现记忆匹配条件的干扰刺激显著小于控制条件的干扰刺激, 表现出注意的快速脱离; 而在行为反应时指标上, 早期的注意捕获效应消失(实验1), 甚至被反转为注意抑制效应(实验2)。这些结果表明在早期注意选择阶段, 记忆驱动的注意捕获效应不受工作记忆表征情绪效价的影响, 但认知控制会在早期注意捕获之后促使注意快速脱离记忆匹配的干扰刺激, 其作用效果受靶子刺激情绪效价的调节。     

The locus of the emotional Stroop effect: A study with the PRP paradigm

Stimuli that are clearly positive or negative (hence valence-laden stimuli) have the potential to interrupt unrelated task processing. A typical example is the emotional Stroop effect (ESE) in which responding to a certain task feature (e.g., color) is delayed by the presentation of task-irrelevant valent stimuli (e.g., negative pictures) compared to valence-neutral stimuli. Here we scrutinize which processes are slowed down by irrelevant but valent stimulation. In Experiment 1, participants performed in a Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) experiment with tone discrimination as Task 1 and color discrimination as Task 2. Importantly, colors in Task 2 were accompanied by valent or neutral pictures. Valent pictures delayed responding in Task 2 (thus an ESE) and this delay was additive to the time interval between tasks. In Experiment 2, task order was reversed and the ESE in Task 1 fully propagated to the Task 2 tone discrimination. These results imply that irrelevant valence-laden stimulation delays capacity-limited processes, and we suggest that this is a late perceptual process acting on stimulus categorization.     

Rose-colored priming effects: Life satisfaction and affective priming

The authors hypothesized that individual differences in life satisfaction would be systematically related to memory networks favoring positive to negative affective priming. To examine this prediction, three studies involving a total of 198 undergraduate participants were conducted. Four tasks were used in the three studies, and each task was fairly distinct in nature. In all tasks, positive and negative affective priming effects were calculated by examining facilitation in relation to consecutive positive stimuli (i.e., a positive priming effect) vs. consecutive negative stimuli (i.e., a negative priming effect). In all studies, life satisfaction interacted with the relative magnitude of positive and negative priming effects, such that higher levels of life satisfaction were associated with a larger positive priming effect and a smaller negative priming effect. The studies significantly extend the view that there is an intimate relationship between life satisfaction and the mental organization of positive vs. negative concepts in memory.     

Inverse cue priming is not limited to masks with relevant features

Apart from positive priming effects, masked prime stimuli can impair responses to a subsequent target stimulus which shares response-critical features in contrast to a target assigned to the opposite response. This counterintuitive phenomenon is called inverse priming (or negative compatibility effect). Here we examine the generality of this phenomenon beyond priming of motor responses. We used a non-motor cue-priming paradigm to study the underlying mechanism of inverse priming for relevant features masks which include task-relevant stimulus features and for irrelevant masks which omit task-relevant features. We found inverse cue-priming effects with both types of masks. With task-irrelevant masks inverse cue-priming was emphasized in those participants being unable to perceive the prime. The existence of inverse non-motor priming under conditions where simple perceptual interactions between the stimuli are ruled out as the source of inverse priming is at odds with the view that inverse priming reflects motor inhibition. Alternatives are discussed.     

记忆编码中目标与背景的情绪一致性对记忆提取的影响

摘 要 本研究将经典情绪启动范式和学习-再认范式相结合,探讨学习时启动与目标的情绪一致性对目标再认的影响。在记忆编码阶段,以情绪面孔图片为启动刺激、一般情绪图片为目标刺激,要求被试对目标图片的效价进行判断;在提取阶段向被试呈现一般情绪图片,要求被试判断是否在前一阶段见过。结果表明,编码阶段的加工背景对记忆提取产生了显著影响。一致启动促进了认知加工与记忆编码,提高了再认正确率。ERP结果也表明,在目标刺激呈现后300-500ms,编码时的情绪一致性对再认阶段消极目标诱发的ERP产生了显著影响。     

Selective attention versus selection for action: negative priming is not the result of distractors being unattended

Using a novel referent size-selection task, MacDonald, Joordens, and Seergobin (1999; MacDonald & Joordens, 2000) found that negative priming persisted even when participants were encouraged to attend to distractors before selectively responding to targets. This finding suggested that negative priming is not caused by processes that operate on stimuli that are to be ignored in the traditional selective attention sense. Mackintosh, Mathews, and Holden's (2002) attempt to replicate the MacDonald et al. study resulted in the discovery of possible artifacts in the referent size-selection task, thereby making the implications with respect to the role of attention less clear. In the present study, we describe a different method for directing attention to distractors in a negative priming context, one that does not suffer from the same potential artifacts as the referent size-selection task. Our results are consistent with those found by MacDonald et al., in that negative priming persisted even when participants were explicitly encouraged to attend to distractors. Implications are discussed in the context of the related concepts of selective attention (e.g., Broadbent, 1965) versus selection for action (e.g., Allport, 1987).     

Are individual differences in masked repetition and semantic priming reliable?

Despite the robustness of semantic priming (e.g., cat–DOG), the test-retest and internal reliabilities of semantic priming effects within individuals are surprisingly low. In contrast, repetition priming (e.g., dog–DOG) appears to be far more reliable across a range of conditions. While Stolz and colleagues attribute the low reliability in semantic priming to uncoordinated automatic processes in semantic memory, their use of unmasked priming paradigms makes it difficult to fully rule out the influence of strategic processes. In the present study, we explored the reliability of semantic and repetition priming when primes were heavily masked and cannot be consciously processed. We found that masked repetition, but not semantic, priming effects showed some degree of reliability. Interestingly, skilled lexical processors (as reflected by vocabulary knowledge and spelling ability) also produced larger masked repetition priming effects.     

Priming in a free association task as a function of association directionality

Two experiments investigated priming in free association, a conceptual implicit memory task. The stimuli consisted of bidirectionally associated word pairs (e.g., BEACH-SAND) and unidirectionally associated word pairs that have no association from the target response back to the stimulus cue (e.g., BONE-DOG). In the study phase, target words (e.g., SAND, DOG) were presented in an incidental learning task. In the test phase, participants generated an associate to the stimulus cues (e.g., BEACH, BONE). In both experiments, priming was obtained for targets (e.g., SAND) that had an association back to the cue, but not for targets (e.g., DOG) for which such a backward association was absent. These results are problematic for theoretical accounts that attribute priming in free association to the strengthening of target responses. It is argued that priming in free association depends on the strengthening of cue-target associations.     

Social priming of dyslexia and reduction of the Stroop effect: What component of the Stroop effect is actually reduced?

Recently, Goldfarb, Aisenberg, and Henik (2011) showed that in a manual format of the Stroop task, dyslexia priming eliminates the normal magnitude of the interference-based Stroop-like findings otherwise exhibited by individuals participating in such research. Goldfarb et al. (2011) consequently concluded that the effect of word reading in a Stroop task (i.e., one automatic behavior) can be effectively controlled through an automatic instruction “do not read” (i.e., another automatic behavior). The present study further investigated these ideas by examining when and how dyslexia priming controls different processes involved in a Stroop task. To this end, the original finding was first replicated (Experiment 1) and subsequently extended to the vocal (instead of manual) response modality to examine whether previously reported eliminations of the Stroop effect persist with this response format (i.e., format producing larger Stroop effects). Since past work (e.g., Augustinova & Ferrand, 2012a; Brown, Joneleit et al., 2002; Ferrand & Augustinova, 2013) had suggested that various interventions were likely to reduce (rather than eliminate) the interference-based Stroop-like findings with vocal responses, a further aim of these experiments was to identify the component of these findings that dyslexia priming actually reduces. To this end, the effects of this intervention were examined in a more fine-grained variant of the Stroop task that distinguished between interference resulting from task-irrelevant processes involved in computing the lexical and semantic representations of the word (i.e., a written distractor to ignore) and task-relevant processes involved in the selection of a response (i.e., a color target to name) that are both involved in this task. In line with our past work (e.g., Augustinova & Ferrand, 2012a; Ferrand & Augustinova, 2013), the results of two experiments (Experiments 2 and 3) showed that in the vocal format, dyslexia priming reduces but does not eliminate the normal magnitude of the interference-based Stroop-like findings and that this reduction is solely due to the control of processes involved in the selection of a response (i.e., a color target to name) – processes that are known to be controllable in this format (Ferrand & Augustinova, 2013). Given that in this format, dyslexia priming had no effect on task-irrelevant processes involved in computing the lexical and semantic representations of a written distractor to be ignored – processes that are known to be automatic – further implications for the control of automatic processes via dyslexia priming are considered and an interpretation in terms of a unitary control mechanism for both the manual and vocal formats is proposed.     

The sensorimotor contributions to implicit memory, familiarity, and recollection

The sensorimotor contributions to memory for prior occurrence were investigated. Previous research has shown that both implicit memory and familiarity draw on gains in stimulus-related processing fluency for old, compared with novel, stimuli, but recollection does not. Recently, it has been demonstrated that processing fluency itself resides in stimulus-specific motor simulations or reenactment (e.g., covert pronouncing simulations for words as stimuli). Combining these lines of evidence, it was predicted that stimulus-specific motor interference preventing simulations should impair both implicit memory and familiarity but leave recollection unaffected. This was tested for words as verbal stimuli associated to pronouncing simulations in the oral muscle system (but also for tunes as vocal stimuli and their associated vocal system, Experiment 2). It was found that oral (e.g., chewing gum), compared with manual (kneading a ball), motor interference prevented mere exposure effects (Experiments 1-2), substantially reduced repetition priming in word fragment completion (Experiment 3), reduced the familiarity estimates in a remember-know task (Experiment 5) and in receiver-operating characteristics (Experiment 6), and completely neutralized familiarity measured by self-reports (Experiment 4) and skin conductance responses (Experiment 7), while leaving recollection and free recall unaffected (across Experiments 1-7). This pattern establishes a rare memory dissociation in healthy participants, that is, explicit without implicit memory or recognizing without feeling familiar. Implications for embodied memory and neuropsychology are discussed.     

Influence of attended repetition trials on negative priming in younger and older adults

A lengthened response time when a distractor becomes a target, called negative priming, is an undisputed phenomenon in selective attention, yet just what the underlying mechanism responsible for negative priming is has not been resolved. In this study, the proportion of attended repetition trials was manipulated in order to test the predictions of three theories that have been proposed for explaining spatial negative priming: distractor suppression (e.g., Tipper, 1985), episodic memory retrieval (e.g., Neill, Valdes, &; Terry, 1995), and novelty bias (e.g., Milliken, Tipper, Houghton, &; Lupiáñez, 2000). The results supported the proposal that a novelty bias, which is flexible and can be overridden, is the primary mechanism responsible for priming in spatial tasks. Memory retrieval obscured the novelty bias for target processing, was more selective in older adults, and did not affect distractor processing. Novelty bias and distractor suppression may share the same inhibitory attentional mechanism.     

Long-term priming of neighbours biases the word recognition process: evidence from a lexical decision task.

The role of orthographically similar words (i.e., neighbours) in the word recognition process has been studied extensively using short-term priming paradigms (e.g., Colombo, 1986). Here we demonstrate that long-term effects of neighbour priming can also be obtained. Experiment 1 showed that prior study of a neighbour (e.g., TANGO) increased later lexical decision performance for similar words (e.g., MANGO), but decreased performance for similar pseudowords (e.g., LANGO). Experiment 2 replicated this bias effect and showed that the increase in lexical decision performance due to neighbour priming is selectively due to words from a relatively sparse neighbourhood. Explanations of the bias effect in terms of lexical activation and episodic memory retrieval are discussed.     

The moderating role of attribute accessibility in conditioning multiple specific attributes

Attribute conditioning (AC) refers to people's changed assessment of stimuli's (conditioned stimuli, CSs) attributes due to pairings with stimuli possessing these attributes (unconditioned stimuli, USs). Up to now, research only showed conditioning of only one attribute within a conditioning session (e.g., athleticism) and measured assessment changes in only this single attribute. The current study shows attribute‐specific AC effects in multi‐attribute environments and shows that attribute accessibility determines which of a US's multiple attributes are conditioned. Experiment 1 shows AC effects for artificial logos with attributes varying across USs (e.g., athletic, intelligent, or funny). Experiment 2 shows that these AC effects persist over time. Experiment 3 directly manipulated accessibility for attributes varying between and within USs (e.g., a US being sexy and familial) with a priming procedure. Priming‐specific attributes prior to conditioning determined which attribute of a US was conditioned to paired CSs. We discuss theoretical implications for AC, as well as practical implications for brand image formation and advertising. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Object files can be purely episodic

Our ability to track an object as the same persisting entity over time and motion may primarily rely on spatiotemporal representations which encode some, but not all, of an object's features. Previous researchers using the 'object reviewing' paradigm have demonstrated that such representations can store featural information of well-learned stimuli such as letters and words at a highly abstract level. However, it is unknown whether these representations can also store purely episodic information (i.e. information obtained from a single, novel encounter) that does not correspond to pre-existing type-representations in long-term memory. Here, in an object-reviewing experiment with novel face images as stimuli, observers still produced reliable object-specific preview benefits in dynamic displays: a preview of a novel face on a specific object speeded the recognition of that particular face at a later point when it appeared again on the same object compared to when it reappeared on a different object (beyond display-wide priming), even when all objects moved to new positions in the intervening delay. This case study demonstrates that the mid-level visual representations which keep track of persisting identity over time--e.g. 'object files', in one popular framework can store not only abstract types from long-term memory, but also specific tokens from online visual experience.     

Associative recognition processes are modulated by the semantic unitizability of memoranda

Although memory of episodic associations is generally considered to be recollective in nature, it has been suggested that when stimuli are experienced as a unit, familiarity processes might contribute to their subsequent associative recognition. To investigate the effect of semantic relatedness during episodic encoding on the processes of retrieval of associative information, we had participants interactively encode pairs of object pictures, vertically arranged so as to suggest a functional or configural relationship between them. Half the pairs were independently judged to be of related objects (e.g., a lamp over a table) and half of unrelated objects (e.g., a key-ring over an apple). At test, participants discriminated between intact, recombined, and new pairs while event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. In an early ERP marker of retrieval success generally associated with familiarity processes, differences related to associative memory only emerged for related pairs, while differences associated with item memory emerged for both related and unrelated pairs. In contrast, in a later ERP effect associated with recollection, differences related to associative memory emerged for both related and unrelated pairs. These findings may indicate that retrieval of episodic associations formed between two semantically related visual stimuli can be supported by familiarity-related processes.     

Negative priming from activation of counting and addition knowledge

In two experiments, subjects were presented with digit pairs (e.g., 32) and asked to respond to the rightmost number. Negative priming, that is, slowed processing, was evident when the rightmost number was a counting-string (e.g., 43 following 12) or addition-sum (e.g., 65 following 32) associate of the number pair from the preceding trial. The studies are the first to demonstrate negative priming with counting and arithmetical memory representations and suggest the obligatory activation of these representations with the presentation of number pairs. The results are also consistent with the view that negative priming often occurs at the semantic level. Received: 15 February 2000 / Accepted: 8 June 2000     

Phonological and conceptual activation in speech comprehension

We propose that speech comprehension involves the activation of token representations of the phonological forms of current lexical hypotheses, separately from the ongoing construction of a conceptual interpretation of the current utterance. In a series of cross-modal priming experiments, facilitation of lexical decision responses to visual target words (e.g., time) was found for targets that were semantic associates of auditory prime words (e.g., date) when the primes were isolated words, but not when the same primes appeared in sentence contexts. Identity priming (e.g., faster lexical decisions to visual date after spoken date than after an unrelated prime) appeared, however, both with isolated primes and with primes in prosodically neutral sentences. Associative priming in sentence contexts only emerged when sentence prosody involved contrastive accents, or when sentences were terminated immediately after the prime. Associative priming is therefore not an automatic consequence of speech processing. In no experiment was there associative priming from embedded words (e.g., sedate-time), but there was inhibitory identity priming (e.g., sedate-date) from embedded primes in sentence contexts. Speech comprehension therefore appears to involve separate distinct activation both of token phonological word representations and of conceptual word representations. Furthermore, both of these types of representation are distinct from the long-term memory representations of word form and meaning.     

Cross-modality priming for people's adjectivized names: failure to support the adjectivization hypothesis

This experiment tested a prediction derived from Hollis and Valentine's 2001 adjectivization hypothesis, that having an adjectival form is the key factor that makes certain classes of proper names, i.e., country names, exhibit a common name-like pattern of long-term priming. The hypothesis predicted that, when adjectivized historical celebrity names, e.g., William Shakespeare/Shakespearean, were compared with nonadjectivized historical celebrity names, e.g., Emile Zola, cross-modality long-term priming in a familiarity decision task would occur only for nonadjectivized name stimuli. 32 students of literature, history, or philosophy (21 women and 11 men; age range 18-41 years, M age = 22.4 yr.) were tested. Priming was measured by latency of response. Analysis showed that the mean RT to primed items was faster than the mean RT to unprimed items when the prime task was presented in both visual and auditory modalities both for the adjectivized and nonadjectivized names. Contrary to the hypothesis, cross-modality priming was observed regardless of the adjectivization of name stimuli. The findings of the present experiment did not support the adjectivization hypothesis.     

Priming of abstract letter identities in the letter match task

Previous studies of letter recognition have not found priming for abstract letter identities. We used a task that required participants to decide whether a target is the same or different from a reference letter presented in opposite case, which avoids the shortcomings of tasks used in previous studies. We found robust priming effects in this task, which were the same size for letter pairs that have similar visual features across case (e.g., c/C, x/X) and dissimilar features (e.g., a/A, b/B). Also, the pattern of priming was the same whether the prime was in the same or different case as the reference. We take these findings as evidence that abstract letter identities support priming in this task. We suggest that the same–different match task is a useful tool for studying representations used to support masked priming in letter recognition and with other stimuli with limited set size.     

Priming of abstract letter identities in the letter match task

Previous studies of letter recognition have not found priming for abstract letter identities. We used a task that required participants to decide whether a target is the same or different from a reference letter presented in opposite case, which avoids the shortcomings of tasks used in previous studies. We found robust priming effects in this task, which were the same size for letter pairs that have similar visual features across case (e.g., c/C, x/X) and dissimilar features (e.g., a/A, b/B). Also, the pattern of priming was the same whether the prime was in the same or different case as the reference. We take these findings as evidence that abstract letter identities support priming in this task. We suggest that the same-different match task is a useful tool for studying representations used to support masked priming in letter recognition and with other stimuli with limited set size.