Abstract
Alerting signals often serve to reduce temporal uncertainty by predicting the time of stimulus onset. The resulting response time benefits have often been explained by facilitated translation of stimulus codes into response codes on the basis of established stimulus-response (S-R) links. In paradigms of masked S-R priming alerting signals also modulate response activation processes triggered by subliminally presented prime stimuli. In the present study we tested whether facilitation of visuo-motor translation processes due to alerting signals critically depends on established S-R links. Alerting signals resulted in significantly enhanced masked priming effects for masked prime stimuli that included and that did not include established S-R links (i.e., target vs. novel primes). Yet, the alerting-priming interaction was more pronounced for target than for novel primes. These results suggest that effects of alerting signals on masked priming are especially evident when S-R links between prime and target exist. At the same time, an alerting-priming interaction also for novel primes suggests that alerting signals also facilitate stimulus-response translation processes when masked prime stimuli provide action-trigger conditions in terms of programmed S-R links.
Highlights
THE EFFECTS OF ALERTING SIGNALS IN MASKED PRIMING Task-irrelevant acoustic signals that precede an imperative visual target stimulus by few hundred milliseconds (e.g., 200–1000 ms) have been demonstrated to improve performance, typically reflected in speeded responses (Niemi and Näätänen, 1981)
The alerting signal based increase of masked priming for target primes was larger in size than the increase of masked priming found for novel primes
The impact of alerting signals on priming effects was stronger for faster Response times (RTs), this finding did not depend on prime-type
Summary
THE EFFECTS OF ALERTING SIGNALS IN MASKED PRIMING Task-irrelevant acoustic signals that precede an imperative visual target stimulus by few hundred milliseconds (e.g., 200–1000 ms) have been demonstrated to improve performance, typically reflected in speeded responses (Niemi and Näätänen, 1981). On a more general level, the functional role of alerting signals may be to support the cognitive system in adapting behavior to an expected event by increasing unspecific alertness and motor readiness and by inducing a bias toward stronger reliance on reflex-like habitual behavior (Fischer et al, 2013) This assumption is captured in the recently proposed facilitated response activation account of alerting signals, suggesting that alerting signals facilitate automatic translation of stimulus codes into response codes (Fischer and Plessow, in revision; Fischer et al, 2010, 2012). Response conflicts, for example, reflect competition between simultaneously activated response codes In this context, the presence of alerting signals is assumed to facilitate automatic stimulusresponse translation processes for relevant and for irrelevant stimulus attributes, resulting in increased interference effects between simultaneously active response codes (e.g., Fischer et al, 2010; Böckler et al, 2011). In a recent electrophysiological study, for example, Böckler et al (2011) found that an alerting-signal increased the amplitude of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) for the incorrect response in incongruent trials, which has been taken as direct evidence that alerting signals facilitate visuo-motor response activation
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