Can the location negative priming process operate in a proactive manner?

The location negative priming (NP) effect refers to the fact that the processing of a current target stimulus (probe trial) is delayed when it appears at a location that has recently contained a distractor event (prime trial), relative to when it occurs at a previously unoccupied position. One view is that the process causing the NP effect involves the inhibition of the internal representation of the prime-distractor event, and that the future processing of target stimuli that involve this event are prolonged because this distractor inhibition is persistent. In this study, we examined the possibility that the NP process (inhibition) could act proactively; specifically asking whether inhibition could be allocated to a location merely predicted to hold a future distractor event. To do this, we cued the probe distractor's location using an otherwise traditional location NP paradigm. No evidence of a proactive NP process was obtained. Probe-trial target latency was the same whether it appeared at the cued distractor location or at a new location, but was delayed when it occupied the prime-distractor location (NP effect). The location NP process is seemingly a reactive one, applying inhibition only when an actual distractor is present, much as past theories have implied.     

The control of visual attention and its influence on prioritized processing in a location negative priming paradigm

In a location-based negative priming paradigm, the possibility of a disengagement option of the underlying inhibitory mechanism was tested. Whereas in previous studies disengagement was observed when providing utility information about the probe trial structure, in the present study the allocation of visual attention to the stimuli was manipulated. In the first step an automatic deployment of visual attention was implemented by presenting all stimuli as abrupt onsets (Experiment 1), which demonstrated commonly observed negative priming effects. In further conditions of non-automatic allocation of visual attention in which target and distractor were presented as no-onset stimuli, negative priming effects were eliminated (Experiments 2 and 3). The preferred interpretation is that in conditions of automatic control of attention, target and distractor compete for control of action. A non-automatic control of visual attention, on the other hand, leads to a top-down modulated selection, which results in prioritized target encoding and a loss of distractor impact on the selection process. Alternative accounts and the role of no-onset distractor processing were investigated in Experiment 4.     

The influence of distractor-only prime trials on the location negative priming mechanism

Two experiments were conducted that examined the influence of distractor-only prime trials on the "location" negative priming (NP) effect. In all experiments, the probe trial always lacked a distractor. We showed that the predictable absence of a probe distractor caused the elimination of the location NP effect when the prime trial contained both a target and a distractor event (T + D-->T), but not when the prime contained only a to-be-ignored distractor event (D-->T) (Milliken, Tipper, Houghton, & Lupianez, 2000). The preservation of the NP effect seen with the distractor-only prime trials (D-->T) was not the result of its lacking a prime-trial selection, nor was it the consequence of its representing a higher level of episodic similarity than the T + D-->T condition. Finally, the location NP effect observed for the D-->T condition is seemingly consistent with the view that location NP and the inhibition-of-return effects share a common underlying process (Milliken et al., 2000).     

Prime-trial processing demands and their impact on distractor processing in a spatial negative priming task

A spatial negative priming (NP) paradigm was used where trials were presented in pairs, first the 'prime' and then the 'probe', and where participants responded manually to a target's location. In Experiment 1, three prime-trial types were used: distractor-plus-target, predictable distractor-only, and unpredictable distractor-only, with prime-probe trial onset delays of 2, 5 or 10 s (NP longevity). In Experiment 2, the latter two prime-trials were employed with onset delays of 75 and 750 ms (distractor response activation-inhibition sequence). With the exception of the 10 s onset delay, the spatial NP effect data (NP size, longevity, distractor response activation-inhibition sequence) was the same for all three prime-trial types. Thus, the varying processing demands associated with each of the prime-trial types (e.g., selection, intervening response) did not alter prime distractor processing so that they differentially contributed to the spatial NP process. The three prime-trial types can be used interchangeably, within limits, to study the NP process.     

Negative priming without probe selection

Responses to an object may be slower or less accurate if that object shares attributes with a recently ignored object(negative priming). Some studies have found negative priming only if the probe trial required selection against a distractor stimulus. In the present experiment, subjects responded to the location of a target (O), ignoring a distractor (X) if it appeared in another location. Reaction time was slower to probe targets that appeared in the same location as the prime distractor, regardless of whether or not the probe target was accompanied by a distractor.     

The role of probe trial distractors in the production/removal of the spatial negative priming effect

When a current (probe trial) target arises at a location formerly occupied by a distractor event (prime trial; ignored-repetition trial), its reaction time is slower than when it occurs at a previously empty location (control trial), revealing a spatial negative priming (SNP) effect. Here, we examined the influence of prime- and probe trial distractor identity similarity on the retrieval of the stored representations of prime trial processing (i.e., indexed by SNP production), in a context where the prevention of the SNP phenomenon had been motivated (via low probability of probe distractor presence—.25). Two results were important. One, the SNP effect was evident when the prime–probe distractor identities fully matched, but not when they partially or totally mismatched, showing a retrieval role for the probe distractor. Two, target-repeat trial latency facilitation showed the same pattern, indicating that representations of prime target and distractor processing are retrieved together, indicative of an episodic storage format. Since target identity remained fixed, the role of a matching probe distractor identity in SNP production was to presumably complete the triggering requirement (i.e., full event identity matching) for accessing the episodically stored representations.     

Long-term positive and negative identity priming: Evidence for episodic retrieval

An episodic retrieval account of negative priming (Neill, 1997; Neill & Valdes, 1992) was evaluated in three experiments. Duringpractice, regular word pairs were presented to subjects differing numbers of times. The subjects named specific target words while they ignored specific distractor words. Following a 5-min retention interval, memory for practice was revealed:Test responses for target words exhibited positive priming that increased with increases in the number of times that the words had been attended. Test responses for distractor words exhibited either positive priming (Experiment 1) or negative priming (Experiments 2–3) that also increased with increases in the number of times that the words had been ignored. The type of priming that abstractors exhibited was determined by several contextual similarities between the practice environment, in which distractors were ignored initially, and the test environments, in which they were processed subsequently. Negative priming that spanned a 5-min interval, increased with increases in the number of times that a distractor was ignored, and was sensitive to contextual changes indicated that the direction of the effect was temporally backward because the test probe cued memory for earlier processing of the priming stimulus when the distractor had been ignored.     

Taking a bright view of negative priming in the light of dim stimuli: further evidence for memory confusion during episodic retrieval.

A same-different letter-matching task was used to examine the effects of stimulus intensity on negative priming, which is poorer performance when target letters have been presented as distractor letters on the immediately preceding trial. In Experiment 1, stimulus intensity was manipulated between-participants, whereas in Experiment 2, it varied randomly from trial-to-trial within-participants. In Experiment 1, negative priming was equivalent for both stimulus intensities. In Experiment 2, negative priming effects were larger for repeated intensity stimuli than for nonrepeated intensity stimuli, when stimulus intensity was dim. Furthermore, for repeated intensity stimuli, negative priming effects were enhanced when the overt response required to the stimulus was repeated from prime to probe trial. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that negative priming may be due to memory confusion, rather than to inhibition of the distractor stimuli.     

The Effects of Cueing Target Location and Response Mode on Interference and Negative Priming Using a Visual Selection Paradigm

Two experiments are reported that examine the effects of cueing the location of a target in the prime display on interference and subsequent negative priming. The prime and probe displays comprised two words, a target and a distractor. In the prime display, the two words were either the same (response compatible) or different (response incompatible). The target in the probe display was unrelated to the prime distractor (control), the same word as the distractor (ignored repetition), or semantically related to the distractor (ignored semantic repetition). In Experiment 1, cueing the location of the prime target significantly reduced the interference effect but not the subsequent identity negative priming (NP) effect. In contrast, not cueing the prime target resulted in the elimination of the identity NP. There was no evidence of semantic NP in this experiment. In Experiment 2, where a categorization response was required, significant interference was obtained in the prime display that was not influenced by cueing the location of the target. Although there was significant semantic NP, identity NP failed to reach significance. The two experiments were analysed together, and findings are discussed in relation to current models of negative priming.     

Spatial and identity negative priming in audition: Evidence of feature binding in auditory spatial memory

Two experiments are reported with identical auditory stimulation in three-dimensional space but with different instructions. Participants localized a cued sound (Experiment 1) or identified a sound at a cued location (Experiment 2). A distractor sound at another location had to be ignored. The prime distractor and the probe target sound were manipulated with respect to sound identity (repeated vs. changed) and location (repeated vs. changed). The localization task revealed a symmetric pattern of partial repetition costs: Participants were impaired on trials with identity-location mismatches between the prime distractor and probe target-that is, when either the sound was repeated but not the location or vice versa. The identification task revealed an asymmetric pattern of partial repetition costs: Responding was slowed down when the prime distractor sound was repeated as the probe target, but at another location; identity changes at the same location were not impaired. Additionally, there was evidence of retrieval of incompatible prime responses in the identification task. It is concluded that feature binding of auditory prime distractor information takes place regardless of whether the task is to identify or locate a sound. Instructions determine the kind of identity-location mismatch that is detected. Identity information predominates over location information in auditory memory.     

启动刺激含有多个靶子条件下的负启动效应

采用数字命名任务,在通常的负启动范式基础上增加启动刺激靶子数目．进行了两个实验。实验一发现,当启动刺激靶子个数为1个和2个时。出现负启动效应;当启动刺激靶子个数为3个和4个时。则不出现负启动效应。这提示靶子所获注意资源数量的作用。实验二发现．当启动刺激有2个和3个靶子时．如果未被选择来反应的靶子成为探测刺激的靶子,其反应时与控制组无显著差异。即不出现负启动。这表明在启动刺激中未被选择来反应的靶子与干扰项所受到的加工是有差别的。     

Interference and negative priming from ignored distractors: The role of selection difficulty

The relation between distractor interference and negative priming from identical distractors was examined in two experiments. Subjects responded to a target letter, which was indicated by an adjacent bar marker, and attempted to ignore a distracting letter. Onprime trials, distracting letters were either compatible or incompatible with the target, allowing for a measure of interference. On subsequentprobe trials, previously ignored distractors were sometimes presented as targets, allowing for a measure of negative priming. Reducing the spatial separation between targets and distractors on the prime trial increased the magnitude of interferenceand negative priming, but these effects appeared to be independent of each other (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the prime target location was precued on some trials, but not on others. Precuing attenuated the magnitude of interference, but not that of negative priming effects. This pattern indicates that measures of negative priming and measures of distractor interference on the immediately preceding trial are independent. The results are discussed in terms of a selective inhibition model of selective attention.     

Disengagement of the location negative priming effect: The influence of an intervening response

Reaction time is significantly longer when a target stimulus arises at a location that has just contained a distractor event, relative to when it appears at a new location [i.e., called, the location negative priming (NP) effect]. The NP effect is eliminated when the second of two paired trials (i.e., prime-to-probe trials) predictably lacks a distractor when the preceding trial contains both a target and a distractor event (T+D), but not when a prime distractor appears alone (D-only). We tested the possibility that the failed NP process disengagement seen with D-only prime trials resulted because they do not require the production of an overt intervening response. This possibility was supported. Results also showed that the intervening response had to meet prerequisites; namely, the response had to be prime-generated, i.e., come from the subset of experimental responses and have engaged in a conflict with the prime distractor-activated response.     

Dissociations between identity and location negative priming

Negative priming refers to the phenomenon of a slowed response time to a previously ignored distractor. Identity negative priming can be observed when the identity of a previous distractor is repeated as the target identity, and location negative priming can be observed when the spatial location of a previous distractor is repeated as the target location. This article reviewed and integrated previous findings and provided empirical evidence to show the dissociations between location and identity negative priming: (a) the removal of probe distractor impeded identity negative priming but not location negative priming; (b) identity negative priming was modulated by the distance between the target and distractor, while location negative priming was not; and (c) perceptual grouping of the target and distractor affected identity negative priming but not location negative priming.     

The use of a distractor-assigned response slows later responding in a location negative priming task

Responding to a target's location takes longer when that location has recently contained a distractor event (ignored-repetition [IR] trial) relative to when it has been unoccupied (control trial). This is known as the location negative priming (NP) effect. We aimed to determine whether the elevated reaction time observed for IR trials was due to the reuse of a distractor location (location locus) and/or to the need to execute a (just inhibited) distractor response (response locus). We isolated these loci latency effects by using many-to-one and one-to-many location-response assignments. Our results showed that reusing a distractor location hastened target processing at that position (facilitative location locus), whereas the production of a distractor response was associated with a time cost (interfering response locus). Accordingly, part of the latency elevation seen with IR trials results from the need on these occasions to execute ajust inhibited (distractor) response, and, hence, the location NP effect has a response locus.     

Inhibition of return in subliminal letter priming

The present study combined exogenous spatial cueing with masked repetition priming to study attentional influences on the processing of subliminal stimuli. Participants performed an alphabetic decision task (letter versus pseudo-letter classification) with central targets and briefly presented peripherally located primes that were either cued or not cued by an abrupt onset. A relatively long delay between cue and prime was used to investigate the effect of inhibition of return (IOR) on the processing of subliminal masked primes. Primes presented to the left visual field showed standard effects of Cue Validity and no IOR (significant priming with valid cues only). Primes presented to the right visual field showed no priming from valid cues (an IOR effect), and priming with invalid cues that depended on hand of response to letter targets (right-hand in Experiment 1, left-hand in Experiment 2). The results are interpreted in terms of a differential speed of engagement and disengagement of attention to the right and left visual fields for alphabetic stimuli, coupled with a complex interaction that arises between Prime Relatedness and response-hand.     

Spatial negative priming modulation: The influence of probe-trial target cueing,distractor presence,and an intervening response

Reaction times are slower when a target (T) appears at a location that has just contained a distractor (D) (ignored-repetition trial), relative to when it arises at a previously unoccupied spatial position (control trial), i.e., the spatial negative priming (NP) effect. In a typical spatial NP paradigm trials are presented in pairs, first the prime and then the probe. Validly cueing ignored-repetition trials, and/or reducing probe distractor probability, modulated the NP process under certain conditions following target-plus-distractor (prime response) but not after distractor-only (no prime response) primes. This supported the idea that the production of a prime (intervening) response meets the needs for producing NP modulation. Additionally, NP elimination, evident when the probe was randomly distractor-free, was not seen when the probe also contained a distractor event. This suggests that the removal of the NP effect is likely achieved by blocking the retrieval of prime distractor information, rather than by removing the NP cause. Seemingly, the presence of a probe distractor is able to bypass the retrieval block.     

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

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.     

The role of selection in generating auditory negative priming

The importance of selecting between a target and a distractor in producing auditory negative priming was examined in three experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with a prime pair of sounds, followed by a probe pair of sounds. For each pair, listeners were to identify the sound presented to the left ear. Under these conditions, participants were especially slow to identify a sound in the probe pair if it had been ignored in the preceding prime pair. Evidence of auditory negative priming was also apparent when the prime sound was presented in isolation to only one ear (Experiment 2) and when the probe target was presented in isolation to one ear (Experiment 3). In addition, the magnitude of the negative priming effect was increased substantially when only a single prime sound was presented. These results suggest that the emergence of auditory negative priming does not depend on selection between simultaneous target and distractor sounds.     

Attentional demand and memory retrieval in negative priming

Negative priming refers to delayed response to previous distractors, and can reflect the operation of attentional selection in prime trials. One important feature of negative priming is that it is modulated by the characteristics of probe trials. The current study manipulated competition from probe distractors and prime-probe similarity to examine the effects of attentional demand and memory retrieval in probe trials. The results demonstrated that the effects of attentional demand and memory retrieval on negative priming were dynamic. Distractor competition in probe trials affected negative priming in Experiment 1, and prime-probe similarity affected negative priming in Experiment 2. Moreover, negative priming in Experiment 3 was observed either when competition from probe distractors was strong or when identical spatial layouts were used in prime-probe couplets. Taken together, either competition from probe distractors or prime-probe similarity of spatial layouts was critical to the manifestation of negative priming at one time. Implications for distractor inhibition and memory retrieval in negative priming were discussed.