Conditions of error priming in number-fact retrieval

Analysis of errors in simple multiplication has shown that answers retrieved on previous trials are initially inhibited (negative error priming) but later are promoted as errors to subsequent problems (positive error priming). Two experiments investigated whether error priming is associated either with problem-specific retrieval processes or with representations of answers that can be manipulated independently of problems. In Experiment 1, answers were primed by visually presenting products for 200 msec prior to problems. Correct-answer primes facilitated retrieval, related-incorrect primes interfered with retrieval more than unrelated primes, and both effects were greater for more difficult problems. Primes affected only the trial on which they were presented, however, whereas both negative and positive error priming from previous problems were observed across trials. In Experiment 2, subjects named and retrieved multiplication products on alternating trials. Just-named products were inhibited as errors to the following multiplication problem (i.e., negative error priming), but, compared to positive priming from previous retrieved products, positive error priming from previously named numbers was weak. The results indicate that positive error priming is due mainly to an encoding or retrieval bias produced by previous problems, whereas negative error priming entails suppression, or de-selection, of answer representations.     

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.     

Suppression in retrieval practice,part-set cueing,and negative priming memory: The hydrogen model

A number of phenomena in memory have been explained using appeals to active suppression processes, including retrieval practice, part-set cueing, and the negative priming that is observed with associative interference. However, more formal attempts to capture such processes have been absent. This paper outlines the hydrogen model of memory retrieval, which aims to be a simple model with the modest goal of trying to explore what influence suppression would have on memory retrieval. This model contains a single activation component and a single suppression component in which suppression comes into play only after retrieval interference has been detected. This model was created to explore the plausibility and viability of ideas about the operation of suppression during memory retrieval. For hydrogen, the degree of suppression recruited is proportional to the amount of interference experienced. Overall, the pattern of human data was captured by the suppression model.     

Long-term negative priming: Support for retrieval of prior attentional processes

Negative priming reveals that participants respond slowly to a probe target that was a task-irrelevant distractor in the preceding prime display (e.g., Tipper, 1985) and is thought to reflect processes mediating short-term behaviour. However, since the first surprising reports that negative priming is found with meaningless stimuli across delays of 30 days (e.g., DeSchepper & Treisman, 1996), researchers have questioned the existence of long-term negative priming effects. Because long-term negative priming could indicate that task-irrelevant information leaves a memory trace that impacts performance over time, such a finding is of immense theoretical importance. Indeed, the current research finds support for the existence of long-term negative priming as well as its generality across different stimuli and conditions. The authors propose that the initial processes that prevent response to irrelevant stimuli may be stored in memory, where retrieval of these processes can mediate behaviour over time.     

Does negative priming reflect inhibitory mechanisms? A review and integration of conflicting views

Negative priming has traditionally been viewed as a reflection of an inhibitory mechanism of attention. However, recent accounts have suggested that negative priming does not reflect inhibitory mechanisms. Rather, slowed reaction times on negative priming trials are either due to retrieval of incompatible response tags or of mismatching perceptual information, or due to extra processes needed to distinguish past from present information. In contrast, it is proposed that there is no firm evidence to discount inhibition models. In fact, although retrieval processes can be implicated in negative priming effects, understanding of these requires consideration of the inhibitory processes involved in selecting information for goal-directed behaviour.     

负启动效应的抗抑制理论及其新进展

负启动效应及其机制是近年来认知心理学研究的重点课题。该文从情景提取说、短暂辨别说以及随意刺激—反应联结的自动化提取理论三个方面论述了负启动效应的抗抑制理论及其新发展,以期为进一步探讨负启动效应的形成机制提供帮助。     

焦虑情绪对图像信息意识提取和无意识提取影响的实验研究

采用加工分离程序,以不同性价图片为实验材料,考察了特质焦虑、启动焦虑和非焦虑三种焦虑类型对图片信息意识提取和无意识提取的影响,结果表明：（1）不同焦虑类型对图像信息的意识提取和无意识提取均有影响,其中特质焦虑对图像的无意识提取更敏感,非焦虑状态对意识提取更敏感;（2）特质焦虑明显促进了负性图片的意识和无意识提取且干扰了正性图片的提取,启动焦虑促进了对负性图片的意识提取。     

Episodic retrieval processes take place automatically in auditory negative priming

Episodic retrieval processes involved in negative priming have been argued to be susceptible to the proportion of attended repetition trials. The more trials with the same prime and probe response, the more beneficial should it be to retrieve the prime episode, particularly its response. Retrieval of the prime episode, however, is task-inappropriate for ignored repetition trials, leading to negative priming. Correspondingly, visual negative priming increases with the proportion of attended repetition trials. We tested whether the same is true for the auditory modality. Three attended repetition proportion groups (0–25–50%) showed the same amount of negative priming. All groups committed more prime response errors in ignored repetition than in control trials, implying that prime response retrieval took place. Thus, retrieval processes in auditory negative priming appear to be automatic and cannot be influenced as easily as in the visual domain. In Experiment 2, the proportion of ignored repetition trials was manipulated (25–50–75%) to test whether auditory negative priming can be strategically manipulated at all. Similar to the visual modality negative priming was reduced with increasing proportion of ignored repetition trials. Differences between visual and auditory short-term memory are discussed to account for the results.     

记忆提取研究的新进展

该文从3个方面回顾了记忆提取研究领域内的最新进展:(1)记忆编码和提取之间的关系,主要针对提取过程的自动性和控制性及相应的神经机制进行了讨论;(2)基于记忆提取的抑制机制,主要涉及指向性遗忘、提取-练习范式的研究及负启动范式在记忆提取研究中的应用;(3)工作记忆能力与记忆提取之间的关系,主要集中于工作记忆能力与控制性记忆提取及记忆提取中的抑制机制之间的关系。     

Production,verification, and priming of multiplication facts

In the arithmetic-verification procedure, subjects are presented with a simple equation (e.g., 4 × 8 = 24) and must decide quickly whether it is true or false. The prevailing model of arithmetic verification holds that the presented answer (e.g., 24) has no direct effect on the speed and accuracy of retrieving an answer to the problem. It follows that models of the retrieval stage based on verification are also valid models of retrieval in the production task, in which subjects simply retrieve and state the answer to a given problem. Results of two experiments using singledigit multiplication problems challenge these assumptions. It is argued that the presented answer in verification functions as a priming stimulus and that on “true” verification trials the effects of priming are sufficient to distort estimates of problem difficulty and to mask important evidence about the nature of the retrieval process. It is also argued that the priming of false answers that have associative links to a presented problem induces interference that disrupts both speed and accuracy of retrieval. The results raise questions about the interpretation of verification data and offer support for a network-interference theory of the mental processes underlying simple multiplication.     

Contextual modulation of prime response retrieval processes: Evidence from auditory negative priming

Contextual similarity between learning and test phase has been shown to be beneficial for memory retrieval. Negative priming is known to be caused by multiple processes; one of which is episodic retrieval. Therefore, the contextual similarity of prime and probe presentations should influence the size of the negative priming effect. This has been shown for the visual modality. In Experiment 1, an auditory four-alternative forced choice reaction time task was used to test the influence of prime-probe contextual similarity on negative priming and the processes underlying the modulation by context. The negative priming effect was larger when the auditory context was repeated than when it was changed from prime to probe. The modulation by context was exclusively caused by an increase in prime response retrieval errors in ignored repetition trials with context repetition, whereas repeating only the context but not the prime distractor did not lead to an increase in prime response retrieval. This exact pattern of results was replicated in Experiment 2. The findings suggest that contextual information is integrated with prime distractor and response information. Retrieval of the previous episode, including prime distractor, prime response, and context (event file), can be triggered when the former prime distractor is repeated, whereas a context cue alone does not retrieve the event file. This suggests an event file structure that is more complicated than its usually assumed binary structure.     

ERP correlates of auditory negative priming

Negative priming refers to slowed down reactions when the distractor on one trial becomes the target on the next. Following two popular accounts, the effect might be due either to inhibitory processes associated with the frontal cortex, or to an ambiguity in the retrieval of episodic information. We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to identify the processing stage primarily associated with negative priming. In an auditory categorization task, reactions in negative priming trials were compared to reactions in a standard control (unrelated primes and probes) and a repetition control (attended prime=ignored probe) condition. Reactions were slower for negative priming than for standard control (Delta32 ms) and repetition control trials (Delta64 ms). The corresponding ERP effect was reflected in an attenuation of a sustained parietal positivity extending from 300 to 600 ms. Because corresponding ERP components were found to be sensitive to stimulus recognition and familiarity, the results may be interpreted to support an episodic retrieval account of negative priming.     

Analysing the relationship between target-to-target and distractor-to-target repetitions: Evidence for a common mechanism

In the present study an assumption of retrieval theories of negative priming was tested. In particular, retrieval theories assume that the same underlying process causes benefits in target-to-target repetition trials and cost effects in distractor-to-target repetition trials in selection tasks in which targets are accompanied by distractor stimuli. More specifically, retrieval theories predict a negative correlation: The higher the benefit in target-to-target repetition trials is, the higher the cost effect in distractor-to-target repetition trials should be. In fact, in a study with considerable power (N = 110) and a design that allowed a confound-free detection of correlations, I observed a significant negative correlation between benefit and cost effects. This result is interpreted as evidence for a common retrieval mechanism.     

Evidence of vocal and manual event files in auditory negative priming

Negative priming with auditory as well as with visual stimuli has been shown to involve the retrieval of prime response information as evidenced by an increase of prime response errors to the probes of ignored repetition trials compared to control trials. We investigated whether prime response retrieval processes were also present for response modalities other than manual responding. In an auditory four alternative forced choice task participants either vocally or manually identified a target sound while ignoring a distractor sound. Negative priming was of equal size in both response modalities. What is more, for both response modalities, there was evidence of increased prime response errors in ignored repetition trials compared to control trials. The findings suggest that retrieval of event files of the prime episode including prime response information is a general mechanism underlying the negative priming phenomenon irrespective of stimulus or response modality.     

Auditory negative priming in younger and older adults

Two experiments are reported in which performance of old and young adults in an auditory negative priming task was compared. Auditory negative priming was not smaller in old than in young adults. This result was independent of whether or not conditions were present that had previously been assumed to favour episodic retrieval, as opposed to inhibitory processes, as a basis of the negative priming phenomenon. The data from the present auditory negative priming experiments are incompatible with the global assumption that the efficiency of inhibitory attentional processes in general diminishes across the adult life span.     

Cross-language negative priming remains intact,while positive priming disappears: evidence for two sources of selective inhibition

In the current experiments, within- and between-language primed lexical decision tasks with Twi-English bilinguals were used. The aim was to explore the priming effects produced by attended and ignored words, in an effort to draw theoretical and empirical parallels and differences between the mechanisms of excitation and inhibition and to isolate the different circumstances in which these mechanisms operate in bilingual language processing. In the within-language (Twi) experiment, facilitatory (positive) priming resulted when a prime word and subsequent probe target word were identical, whereas delayed decisions to probe targets (negative priming) ensued when the ignored prime word was conceptually identical to the subsequent probe target word. In contrast, while the between-language (Twi-English) experiments replicated the ignored repetition negative priming effect, no evidence of positive priming was observed. These between-language findings undermine episodic retrieval models of selective attention that discount inhibitory processes in negative priming paradigms. Instead, our findings substantiate inhibition-based accounts by showing that there are two sources of inhibition operating at the local word and global language levels of abstraction. The findings also support bilingual language representations in which the words of the two languages are integrated.     

Cross-language positive priming disappears, negative priming does not: Evidence for two sources of selective inhibition

The authors used a unilingual and bilingual primed lexical decision task to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored words. In the unilingual experiment, accelerated lexical decisions to probe target words resulted when the word matched the preceding target word, whereas slowed lexical decisions to probe target words resulted when the word matched the preceding ignored nontarget word. In the bilingual (English-Spanish) experiment, between-language, rather than within-language, priming manipulations were used. Although the ignored repetition negative priming effect replicated across languages, cross-language attended repetition positive priming did not. This dissociation of priming effects in the inter- versus intralanguage priming conditions contradicts episodic retrieval accounts of negative priming that deny the existence of selective inhibitory processes. On the other hand, these results support an extension of inhibition-based accounts of negative priming, because they indicate that inhibition can operate at two levels of abstraction--local word and global language--simultaneously.     

Nature and facts about natural and artifactual categories: Sex differences in the semantic priming paradigm

There is abundant evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological experiments for the distinction of natural versus artifactual categories and a gender-specific difference: women’s performances in cognitive tasks increase when natural categories are used, whereas men’s performances increase with artifactual categories. Here, we used the semantic priming paradigm to study retrieval processes by presenting category labels as primes and exemplars as targets. Overall, in two experiments we found larger priming effects for natural than for artifactual categories. In addition, females showed positive priming effects for natural but negative effects for artifactual categories, whereas males showed positive priming effects for both categories. This pattern matches with that from other tasks and can be interpreted as evidence that the findings from these other tasks are, at least partially, indeed due to different representations or processing modes for males and females and not (exclusively) due to—for example—different familiarity with a category. In a further experiment, we showed that the found pattern for females can be manipulated by focusing on perceptual vs. functional features. The results can be interpreted as first evidence that there are (eventually in addition to different “crystallized” semantic structures) specific default processing modes that differ for males and females.     

Analysing the relationship between target-to-target and distractor-to-target repetitions: evidence for a common mechanism

In the present study an assumption of retrieval theories of negative priming was tested. In particular, retrieval theories assume that the same underlying process causes benefits in target-to-target repetition trials and cost effects in distractor-to-target repetition trials in selection tasks in which targets are accompanied by distractor stimuli. More specifically, retrieval theories predict a negative correlation: The higher the benefit in target-to-target repetition trials is, the higher the cost effect in distractor-to-target repetition trials should be. In fact, in a study with considerable power (N = 110) and a design that allowed a confound-free detection of correlations, I observed a significant negative correlation between benefit and cost effects. This result is interpreted as evidence for a common retrieval mechanism.     

提取干扰对知觉和概念启动的影响

通过学习—测验范式,分别以词汇判断、语义分类任务为测验,探讨提取干扰对不同识别式记忆的影响差异。结果发现,实验1验证了识别式知觉内隐记忆的提取干扰效应,实验2发现识别式概念内隐记忆在提取干扰下也明显降低;两个实验启动量联合分析发现,相比无干扰条件,概念启动比知觉启动受到提取干扰的破坏更大。上述结果说明识别式内隐记忆的提取干扰具有普遍性,提取干扰产生了不同识别式内隐记忆之间的分离,识别式概念内隐记忆更容易受到提取干扰的影响。