注意和非注意条件下的整体和局部性质加工

以往关于整体和局部知觉的研究通常要求被试直接对出现在复合刺激整体或局部水平上的靶目标做反应,因此复合刺激与任务相关并被注意。该研究通过测量复合字母的整体和局部性质对随后出现的探测刺激的启动效应来研究在非注意条件下整体和局部性质加工的差异。实验一发现复合刺激的整体和局部性质对探测刺激产生负启动效应,但二者没有显著差异。实验二缩短了启动刺激与探测刺激之间的时间间隔,复合刺激的整体和局部性质对探测刺激都不再产生启动效应。在实验一、二中,当要求被试直接对复合刺激做反应时,其分辨局部性质的错误率都比分辨整体性质的错误率高。根据这些结果,讨论了在注意和非注意下的整体和局部性质加工的差异。     

Preconscious analysis of global structure: Evidence from masked priming

According to the global precedence hypothesis, the perceptual processing of complex objects proceeds from global structure to the analysis of local elements. In the present study, we used a masked priming paradigm to explore whether the global or the local level of hierarchical letters is analysed at preconscious processing stages. Experiment 1 found masked priming only after global prime letters in focused‐attention conditions. Experiment 2 used a divided‐attention task in which attention was not focused specifically on either level of hierarchy and did not find any priming. Experiment 3 used otherwise the same task as Experiment 2 but biased attention either to the global or the local level by manipulating the probability that targets appeared at one level. Priming was found after global prime letters in the global‐bias condition but not in the local‐bias condition. Experiments 4a and 4b suggest that the size of the local letters was not responsible for the lack of priming after local primes. The results suggest a priority for global processing already at a preconscious level and that attentional factors may modulate processes at this level.     

Dynamic shifts of pigeon local/global attention

It has previously been shown that pigeons can shift attention between parts and wholes of complex stimuli composed of larger, "global" characters constructed from smaller, "local" characters. The base-rate procedure used biased target level within any condition at either the local or global level; targets were more likely at one level than at the other. Biasing of target level in this manner demonstrated shifts of local/global attention over a time span consisting of several days with a fixed base rate. Experiment 1 examined the possibility that pigeons can shift attention between local and global levels of perceptual analysis in seconds rather than days. The experiment used priming cues the color of which predicted on a trial-by-trial basis targets at different perceptual levels. The results confirmed that pigeons, like humans, can display highly dynamic stimulus-driven shifts of local/global attention. Experiment 2 changed spatial relations between features of priming cues and features of targets within a task otherwise similar to that used in experiment 1. It was predicted that this change in cues might affect asymmetry but not the occurrence of a priming effect. A priming effect was again obtained, thereby providing generality to the claim that pigeons can learn that trial-by-trial primes predict targets at different levels of perceptual analysis. Pigeons can display perceptual, stimulus-driven priming of a highly dynamic nature. Electronic Publication     

On the immunity of perceptual implicit memory to manipulations of attention

In four experiments, we examined the effect of manipulating study phase attention in a Stroop task on the extent of repetition priming in the lexical decision task (LDT). Experiment 1 replicated the immunity of the LDT to division of attention reported by Szymanski and MacLeod (1996), using a standard Stroop configuration. Response times to previously encountered words were identical regardless of whether the participants were required to read the words or name the color in which they were presented. Experiment 2 demonstrated that implementing the Stroop manipulation across separate visual objects reduced but did not eliminate priming of unattended words, provided the words remained in the attended region of the stimulus display. When this constraint was removed in Experiment 3, priming of unattended words disappeared. Experiment 4 demonstrated statistically equivalent priming for attended and unattended words when the Stroop manipulation remained in the same visual object but attention was directed to a single letter of the word. In all four experiments, the Stroop manipulation had a clear effect on recognition. These results qualify claims that the LDT might be immune to manipulations of study phase attention and suggest that the LDT has a lower threshold level of attention at encoding than do other standard implicit tests of memory.     

Effect of short and long exposure duration and dual-tasking on a global-local task

Past research has demonstrated a global advantage in responses to visually presented hierarchical stimuli such that, on incongruent trials, the global form interferes with responses to the local level [Kimchi, R. (1992). Primacy of wholistic processing and global/local paradigm: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 24-38]. In Experiment 1, 32 adults performed alternating blocks of global or local identification of hierarchical letter stimuli in which the global and local letters were congruent, incongruent, or neutral, and were presented at either a short (17 ms) or long (100 ms) exposure duration. A global advantage was demonstrated at both durations. In the local-directed task, interference on incongruent, relative to neutral, trials was observed at both exposure durations, but facilitation on congruent trials, relative to neutral trials, was present only when stimuli were presented at the long exposure duration. In Experiment 2, global or local identification was performed by another group of 24 adults at either a long or short exposure duration, and also under conditions of full attention (FA) or dual-task (DT) conditions with a digit-monitoring task. Under FA, we again found significant interference at both exposure durations, but facilitation only at the long exposure duration. Under DT conditions, the pattern of facilitation and interference at the short duration remained unchanged. At the long duration, however, dual-tasking eliminated interference in the RT but not error data, while facilitation was present in both sets of data. Results are in line with a perceptual account of the global advantage, and suggest that facilitation requires consciously-mediated processes, whereas interference does not.     

不同控制水平下的汉字语义加工

字词语义的加工是否受其它加工过程或操纵手段的控制一直是自动化研究的热点,以往针对英文字词的研究结果不尽一致。本研究以在该类研究中比英文单词更具优越性的汉字为材料,采用部件搜索任务,通过操纵控制水平的强弱探讨汉字的语义加工是否受控制这一问题。实验一考察汉字的语义是否受浅水平加工和无意识操纵的控制（低控制水平）;实验二探讨增强了的控制水平是否能够控制语义的加工。结果在实验一中发现了语义负启动效应;实验二出现了正启动和负启动效应。该结果表明,控制机制并不能阻止汉字语义加工本身的发生,仅能对已经产生激活的语义进行调控,提示汉字的语义加工是不可控的。     

Age and inhibition

Two experiments assess adult age differences in the extent of inhibition or negative priming generated in a selective-attention task. Younger adults consistently demonstrated negative priming effects; they were slower to name a letter on a current trial that had served as a distractor on the previous trial relative to one that had not occurred on the previous trial. Whether or not inhibition dissipated when the response to stimulus interval was lengthened from 500 ms in Experiment 1 to 1,200 ms in Experiment 2 depended upon whether young subjects were aware of the patterns across trial types. Older adults did not show inhibition at either interval. The age effects are interpreted within the Hasher-Zacks (1988) framework, which proposes inhibition as a central mechanism determining the contents of working memory and consequently influencing a wide array of cognitive functions.     

Global and local processing in nonattended objects: a failure to induce local processing dominance.

Paquet and Merikle (1988) found that subjects can ignore the category of unattended local forms but not that of global forms. Does this finding reflect a priority for global information during perception? In 5 studies, 2 compound stimuli, each surrounded by a frame, were presented side by side, and attention was directed to 1 of the stimuli. The first 2 studies examined whether local dominance would emerge if a small gap (Experiment 1) or the presence of small white lines (Experiment 2) on the surrounding frame specified the target object. No evidence for local dominance was found. Three additional studies examined whether local dominance would be obtained if subjects had extensive practice identifying the local aspect of stimulus displays. Although local practice led to automatic detection of unattended local targets, it did not affect the processing of the global aspect. These results are proposed to exemplify the priority of global information during perception.     

Code-switching effects in bilingual word recognition: a masked priming study with event-related potentials

Two experiments tested language switching effects with bilingual participants in a priming paradigm with masked primes (duration of 50 ms in Experiment 1 and 100 ms in Experiment 2). Participants had to monitor target words for animal names, and ERPs were recorded to critical (non-animal) words in L1 and L2 primed by unrelated words from the same or the other language. Both experiments revealed language priming (switching) effects that depended on target language. For target words in L1, most of the language switch effect appeared in the N400 ERP component, with L2 primes generating a more negative going wave than L1 primes. For L2 target words, on the other hand, the effects of a language switch appeared mainly in an earlier ERP component (N250) peaking at approximately 250 ms post-target onset, and showing greater negativity following an L1 prime than an L2 prime. This is the first evidence for fast-acting language-switching effects occurring in the absence of overt task switching.     

Negative priming in a gender decision task and in a semantic categorization task

In three experiments, we tested the hypothesis that negative priming (NP) can occur without prime or target selection, when conflicting properties are associated with the prime and the target, and when the experimental conditions allow the encoding of the target as a separate episode from the prime. These predictions were confirmed in Experiment 1, using a gender decision task. Responses were slower when prime and target had the same gender than when they had different genders, with an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of 600 ms but not with an ISI of 25 ms. Experiment 2 eliminated a possible explanation of the NP obtained in Experiment 1, in terms of response inhibition during the prime processing. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated the replicability and the generality of our NP, in a semantic categorization task. Empirical and theoretical consequences of our results for studies using the priming paradigm are discussed.     

On the difference between response inhibition and negative priming: Evidence from simple and selective stopping

Negative priming is a commonly observed after-effect in studies concerning inhibition. Effects of the preceding trial are also found in other paradigms, like the stop signal paradigm. In the present study, stop signals were introduced in a negative priming paradigm and the relation between stop signal inhibition and negative priming was investigated. In Experiment 1, we used a simple stop signal task. Stopping data clearly suggest that stopping performance was not influenced by negative priming. Interestingly, on no-signal probes the negative priming effect disappeared after successful inhibition of the response on the prime trial. On the contrary, when inhibition failed, the negative priming effect remained. In Experiment 2, we used the selective stop signal task. As in Experiment 1, inhibition of motor responses was not influenced by negative priming. The hypothesis that negative priming disappeared due to a general nonspecific stop was confirmed in this experiment, as a negative priming effect was found after both successful and unsuccessful behavioral inhibition. The results of both experiments show that response inhibition is not influenced by negative priming, and that negative priming is only affected after a successful general stop.     

Subliminal access to abstract face representations does not rely on attention

The present study used masked repetition priming to examine whether face representations can be accessed without attention. Two experiments using a face recognition task (fame judgement) presented masked repetition and control primes in spatially unattended locations prior to target onset. Experiment 1 (n=20) used the same images as primes and as targets and Experiment 2 (n=17) used different images of the same individual as primes and targets. Repetition priming was observed across both experiments regardless of whether spatial attention was cued to the location of the prime. Priming occurred for both famous and non-famous targets in Experiment 1 but was only reliable for famous targets in Experiment 2, suggesting that priming in Experiment 1 indexed access to view-specific representations whereas priming in Experiment 2 indexed access to view-invariant, abstract representations. Overall, the results indicate that subliminal access to abstract face representations does not rely on attention.     

Effect of voice characteristics on the attended and unattended processing of two concurrent messages

Three experiments using dichotic listening measured the priming effect produced on the detection of a semantically defined target word in an attended list of words by a lexically identical word presented to the opposite ear with an attenuation of 12 dB. Experiment 1 embedded the prime in unattended continuous speech and found a 21 ms priming effect, but only when the voices of the two messages had different pitch ranges. Experiment 2 emphasised and generalised the priming effect to a more natural situation using voices differing both in pitch and timbre. This priming effect did not vary with word frequency. In Experiment 3 the prime was part of a list of isolated words played to the unattended ear. It found a 94 ms priming effect when there was no pitch-range difference between the two messages. This priming effect was larger for high-frequency words than for low. These results extend recent findings by Rivenez, Darwin, and Guillaume (2006) and demonstrate the importance of factors that influence perceptual organisation in determining the extent to which unattended messages can be processed.     

Global shape integration and illusory form perception in the absence of awareness

Previous research on perceptual organization operations still provides contradictory evidence on whether the integration of sparse local elements into coherently unified shapes and the construction of the illusory form are accomplished without the need of awareness. In the present study, three experiments were conducted in which participants were presented with masked (Experiment 1, SOA = 27 ms; Experiment 2; SOA = 53 ms) and unmasked (Experiment 3) primes consisting of geometric shapes (a square or a diamond) that could be congruent or incongruent with subsequent probe stimuli (square vs. diamond). Furthermore, the primes were divided into: a grouping condition (where local elements may group together into global shapes), an illusory condition (where the arrangement of local elements produced illusory shapes) and a hybrid condition (where both operations were presented simultaneously). While no priming effects were found for the shortest SOA (27 ms), both grouping and illusory primes produced significant priming effects in the longer SOA (53 ms). On the other hand, results in Experiment 3 (unmasked) showed strong priming effects for the grouping of the inducers in both the grouping and the hybrid conditions, and also a significant but weaker priming effect for the illusory condition. Overall, our results support the possibility of the integration of local visual features into a global shape in the absence of awareness and, likewise, they suggest an early –subliminal– construction of the illusory shape, implying that feedback projections from higher to lower visual areas are not crucial in the construction of the illusory form.     

重复知盲:刺激呈现时间及作业对反应时的影响

本研究用汉字材料及反应时的数据来探讨重复知盲现象及有关机制。在实验一中,被试必须判断快速连续呈现的两个字究竟是否包含两个或是只有一个动物字。结果显示在７０毫秒时,有重复知盲现象（重复动物字组比非重复动物字组的反应时为长）;在１００毫秒时则无;另外,在２００毫秒时则有重复启动现象产生（重复动物字组比非重复动物字组的反应时为短）。实验二采用同样的材料及呈现方法,但被试只需要判断以７０毫秒呈现之实验材料中的第二个字是否动物字。结果发现类似重复启动的现象,这些结果显示,呈现时间与作业是决定重复刺激究竟造成知盲或启动效应的重要因素。本文另外还讨论本研究的方法与结果对了解重复刺激心理加工的可能贡献。     

Extending a focused attention paradigm to critically test for unconscious congruency effects

ABSTRACT

In a novel integration of research designs, we tested for unconscious perception effects at an unattended stimulus location using a focused attention paradigm (Lachter, J., Forster, K. I., & Ruthruff, E. 2004. Forty-five years after Broadbent (1958): Still no identification without attention. Psychological Review, 111(4), 880–913. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.111.4.880). Target-masked word or nonword prime stimuli were briefly displayed for 14, 28, or 56?ms at an experimentally-defined attended or unattended location, followed by a lexical decision task. At the briefest prime durations (14 and 28?ms), we failed to find any evidence for unattended priming effects, consistent with Lachter et al., but there were some small priming (i.e., congruency) effects at the attended location. The 14?ms primes could not be discriminated above chance, but could be detected. Our results support the claim that perceptual processing is strongest with focal attention. For the 14?ms primes at the attended location, results could support an unconscious perception claim, but the effect was weak and awareness of the primes was unlikely to have been completely eliminated.     

Effects of exposure duration and eccentricity of global and local information on processing dominance

Abstract

The effects of exposure duration of stimuli and the eccentricity of local and global information in hierarchical patterns on processing dominance were examined using a paradigm of selective attention and masked stimuli. In the first experiment, the aim was to determine whether the exposure duration of stimuli has differential effects on processing dominance. Stimuli were presented with spatial certainty and controlled eccentricity at four exposure durations (unlimited, 140 msec, 70 msec and 40 msec). The results showed global advantage independently of the exposure duration used. Differential effects were obtained in relation to the interference between the global and local levels depending on the exposure duration. The purpose of the second and third experiments was to determine whether the eccentricity of local and global levels affects processing dominance under a condition of brief exposure duration of stimuli. The results of Experiment 2 showed local dominance when the eccentricity was different for both levels and biased to the local level (H's and S's stimuli). On the contrary, they showed global dominance when the eccentricity of the two levels was the same (C's stimuli). The results of Experiment 3 revealed that the effect of global dominance persisted when the stimuli presented local and global information foveally.     

Facilitation versus inhibition in the masked priming same-different matching task

In the past years, growing attention has been devoted to the masked priming same-different task introduced by Norris and Kinoshita ( 2008 , Journal of Experimental Psychology: General). However, a number of researchers have raised concerns on the nature of the cognitive processes underlying this task-in particular the suspicion that masked priming effects in this task are mostly inhibitory in nature and may be affected by probe-prime contingency. To examine the pattern of facilitative/inhibitory priming effects in this task, we conducted two experiments with an incremental priming paradigm using four stimulus-onset asynchronies (13, 27, 40, and 53?ms). Experiment 1 was conducted under a predictive-contingency scenario (probe-prime-target; i.e., "same" trials: HOUSE-house-HOUSE vs. house-water-HOUSE; "different" trials: field-house-HOUSE vs. field-water-HOUSE), while Experiment 2 employed a zero-contingency scenario (i.e., "same" trials: HOUSE-house-HOUSE vs. house-water-HOUSE; "different" trials: field-field-HOUSE vs. field-water-HOUSE). Results revealed that, for "same" responses, both facilitation and inhibition increased linearly with prime duration in the two scenarios, whereas the pattern of data varied for "different" responses, as predicted by the Bayesian Reader model.     

Effects of prime task on affective priming by facial expressions of emotion

Priming of affective word evaluation by pictures of faces showing positive and negative emotional expressions was investigated in two experiments that used a double task procedure where participants were asked to respond to the prime or to the target on different trials. The experiments varied between-subjects the prime task assignment and the prime-target interval (SOA, stimulus onset asynchrony). Significant congruency effects (that is, faster word evaluation when prime and target had the same valence than when they were of opposite valence) were observed in both experiments. When the prime task oriented the subjects to an affectively irrelevant property of the faces (their gender), priming was observed at SOA 300 ms but not at SOA 1000 ms (Experiment 1). However, when the prime task assignment explicitly oriented the subjects to the valence of the face, priming was observed at both SOA durations (Experiment 2). These results show, first, that affective priming by pictures of facial emotion can be obtained even when the subject has an explicit goal to process a non-affective property of the prime. Second, sensitivity of the priming effect to SOA duration seems to depend on whether it is mediated by intentional or unintentional activation of the valence of the face prime.     

Are morphological effects distinguishable from the effects of shared meaning and shared form?

Effects of orthographically and semantically related primes were compared with morphologically related primes in an immediate (Experiment 1) and a long-term (Experiment 2) lexical decision task. Morphological relatedness produced facilitation across a range of prime durations (32-300 ms) as well as when items intervened between prime and target, and its magnitude increased with prime duration. Semantic facilitation and orthographic inhibition arose only in the immediate priming task. Moreover, morphological effects were significantly greater than the sum of semantic and orthographic effects at a stimulus onset asynchrony of 300 ms but were not reliably different at shorter durations. The adequacy of an account that describes morphological relatedness as distinct from the composite effects of semantic and orthographic similarity must account for changes in additivity across prime durations.