Prime Awareness Research Articles

Assessing subjective prime awareness on a trial-by-trial basis interferes with masked semantic priming effects.

Ratings of perceptual experience on a trial-by-trial basis are increasingly used in masked priming studies to assess prime awareness. It is argued that such subjective ratings more adequately capture the content of phenomenal consciousness compared to the standard objective psychophysical measures obtained in a session after the priming experiment. However, the concurrent implementation of the ratings within the priming experiment might alter magnitude and processes underlying semantic priming, because participants try to identify the masked prime. In the present study, we therefore compared masked semantic priming effects assessed within the classical sequential procedure, in which prime identification is psychophysically assessed after the priming experiment, with those obtained in a condition, in which prime awareness is rated within the priming experiment. Two groups of participants performed a lexical decision task (LDT) on targets preceded by masked primes of 20, 40, or 60 ms durations, to induce the variability of prime awareness. One group additionally rated prime visibility trials-wise using the Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS), whereas the other group only performed the LDT. Analysis of reaction times (RTs) as well as drift diffusion modeling revealed general priming effects on RT and drift rate only in the PAS-absent group. In the PAS-present group, residual priming effects on RT and the non-decisional component t0 were obtained for trials with rated prime awareness. This shows that assessing subjective perceptual experience on a trial-by-trial basis heavily interferes with semantic processes underlying masked priming, presumably due to attentional demands associated with concurrent prime identification. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Extracting probability in the absence of visual awareness

Extracting statistical regularities from the environment is crucial for survival. It allows us to learn cues for where and when future events will occur. Can we learn these associations even when the cues are not consciously perceived? Can these unconscious processes integrate information over long periods of time? We show that human visual system can track the probability of location contingency between an unconscious prime and a conscious target over a period of time of minutes. In a series of psychophysical experiments, we adopted an exogenous priming paradigm and manipulated the location contingency between a masked prime and a visible target (i.e., how likely the prime location predicted the target location). The prime’s invisibility was verified both subjectively and objectively. Although the participants were unaware of both the existence of the prime and the prime-target contingency, our results showed that the probability of location contingency was tracked and manifested in the subsequent priming effect. When participants were first entrained into the fully predictive prime-target probability, they exhibited faster responses to the more predictive location. On the contrary, when no contingency existed between the prime and target initially, participants later showed faster responses to the less predictive location. These results were replicated in two more experiments with increased statistical power and a fine-grained delineation of prime awareness. Together, we report that the human visual system is capable of tracking unconscious probability over a period of time, demonstrating how implicit and uncertain regularity guides behavior.

Supplemental Material for Assessing Subjective Prime Awareness on a Trial-by-Trial Basis Interferes With Masked Semantic Priming Effects

Supplemental Material for Assessing Subjective Prime Awareness on a Trial-by-Trial Basis Interferes With Masked Semantic Priming Effects

Visual Awareness Is Essential for Grouping Based on Mirror Symmetry

We examined whether symmetry-based grouping can take place in the absence of visual awareness. To this end, we used a priming paradigm, sandwich masking as an invisibility-inducing method, and primes and targets composed of two vertical symmetric or asymmetric lines. The target could be congruent or incongruent with the prime in symmetry. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with masked primes and clearly visible targets. In each trial, the participants performed a two-alternative discrimination task on the target, and then rated the visibility of the prime on a subjective visibility four-point scale (used to assess prime awareness). Subjectively invisible primes failed to produce response priming, suggesting that symmetry processing might depend on visual awareness. However, participants barely saw the prime, and the results for the visible primes were inconclusive, even when we used a conservative criterion for awareness. To rule out the possibility that our prime stimuli could not produce priming per se, we conducted a control visibility experiment (Experiment 2), in which participants were presented with unmasked, clearly visible primes and performed a target task. The results showed that our primes could elicit significant response priming when visible. Taken together, our findings indicate that symmetry-based grouping requires visual awareness.

Does the influence of near-threshold primes depend on the type of task?

Most studies investigating the influence of primes on the processing of subsequent targets involve a main task in which responses are made to the targets, and a task that tests prime awareness. If the participant is not aware of the prime location/identity but an influence of the prime is observed in the main task, researchers conclude that this influence can be ascribed to unconscious processing of the prime. This implies the assumption that the prime's influence is independent of task instructions: a prime consciously perceived in the prime task is consciously perceived in the main task. In the metacontrast-masking study, we compared motor- and attention-related electroencephalographic (EEG) components in three tasks with the same stimuli but different instructions and showed that early posterior contralateral negativities (PCNs) and lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) were smaller when primes were task-relevant than when targets were task-relevant. This suggests that early components may depend on task instruction and are not purely prime-related.

Prior Expectation Modulates Repetition Suppression without Perceptual Awareness

Stimulus repetition induces attenuated brain responses. This phenomenon, termed repetition suppression (RS), is classically held to stem from bottom-up neuronal adaptation. However, recent studies suggest that RS is driven by top-down predictive mechanisms. It remains controversial whether these top-down mechanisms of RS rely on conscious strategies, or if they represent a more fundamental aspect of perception, coding for physical properties of the repeated feature. The presence of top-down effects in the absence of perceptual awareness would indicate that conscious strategies are not sufficient to explain top-down mechanisms of RS. We combined an unconscious priming paradigm with EEG recordings and tested whether RS can be modulated by the probability of encountering a repetition, even in the absence of awareness. Our results show that both behavioural priming and RS near occipital areas are modulated by repetition probability, regardless of prime awareness. This contradicts previous findings that have argued that RS modulation is a by-product of conscious strategies. In contrast, we found that the increase in theta-band power following unrepeated trials – an index of conflict detection – is modulated only by expectations during conscious primes, implicating the use of conscious strategies. Together, our results suggest that the influence of predictions on RS can be either automatic in sensory brain regions or dependent on conscious strategies.

The role of awareness in the cognitive control of single-prime negative priming.

Single-prime negative priming refers to a phenomenon whereby repeating a single prime as a probe target slows responses to that target. This phenomenon is modulated by cognitive control when the contingency between the prime and probe target is higher than chance. The present study investigated the role of prime awareness and awareness of the contingency within the control mechanism during single-prime negative priming. Results showed that while single-prime negative priming occurred regardless of participant awareness, the control mechanism was modulated by prime awareness and perceived contingency.

Masked emotional priming: A double dissociation between direct and indirect effects reveals non-conscious processing of emotional information beyond valence.

We demonstrate non-conscious processing beyond valence by employing the masked emotional priming paradigm (Rohr, Degner, & Wentura, 2012) with a stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) variation. Emotional faces were briefly presented and directly masked, followed by the target face, using a SOA of either 43ms or 143ms. Targets were categorized as happy, angry, fearful, or sad. With short SOA, we replicated the differentiated priming effect within the negative domain (i.e., angry differentiate from fearful/sad). A direct test of prime awareness indicated that primes could not be discriminated consciously in this condition. With long SOA, however, we did not observe the priming effect whereas the direct test indicated some degree of conscious processing. Thus, indirect effects dissociated from direct effects in our study, an indication for non-conscious processing. Thereby, the present study provides evidence for non-conscious processing of emotional information beyond a simple positive-negative differentiation.

Retraction: ‘Correction or comparison? The effects of prime awareness on social judgments’, by M. Maringer and D. Stapel

European Journal of Social PsychologyVolume 46, Issue 1 p. 132-132 Retraction Statement Retraction: ‘Correction or comparison? The effects of prime awareness on social judgments’, by M. Maringer and D. Stapel First published: 30 November 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2173Citations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume46, Issue1February 2016Pages 132-132 RelatedInformation

Awareness of "Invisible" Arrows in a Metacontrast Masking Paradigm.

A common strategy in unconscious perception research is to use either pattern masking or metacontrast masking to render prime stimuli "invisible" to consciousness. However, several recent studies have questioned whether the identities of prime stimuli (typically arrows or diamonds and squares) in metacontrast masking studies are impossible to consciously perceive. In a series of studies, we concurrently related prime awareness, target response time priming, and prime identification across 3 prime-mask stimulus onset asynchronies (27, 40, and 67 ms). We found that increases in prime awareness ratings were accompanied by better prime identification performance. Significant prime identification in the 27-ms condition was obtained only at the highest awareness rating; for the other 2 stimulus onset asynchronies most awareness ratings were associated with above-chance prime identification. The priming effects obtained in these paradigms occur, to some degree, when participants are likely to be aware of the prime stimuli. Our results, collectively, suggest that metacontrast masking of primes does not necessarily preclude their awareness. Priming effects may depend on at least partial awareness of the prime stimuli.

Parallel effects of processing fluency and positive affect on familiarity-based recognition decisions for faces.

According to attribution models of familiarity assessment, people can use a heuristic in recognition-memory decisions, in which they attribute the subjective ease of processing of a memory probe to a prior encounter with the stimulus in question. Research in social cognition suggests that experienced positive affect may be the proximal cue that signals fluency in various experimental contexts. In the present study, we compared the effects of positive affect and fluency on recognition-memory judgments for faces with neutral emotional expression. We predicted that if positive affect is indeed the critical cue that signals processing fluency at retrieval, then its manipulation should produce effects that closely mirror those produced by manipulations of processing fluency. In two experiments, we employed a masked-priming procedure in combination with a Remember-Know (RK) paradigm that aimed to separate familiarity- from recollection-based memory decisions. In addition, participants performed a prime-discrimination task that allowed us to take inter-individual differences in prime awareness into account. We found highly similar effects of our priming manipulations of processing fluency and of positive affect. In both cases, the critical effect was specific to familiarity-based recognition responses. Moreover, in both experiments it was reflected in a shift toward a more liberal response bias, rather than in changed discrimination. Finally, in both experiments, the effect was found to be related to prime awareness; it was present only in participants who reported a lack of such awareness on the prime-discrimination task. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that points not only to a role of fluency, but also of positive affect in familiarity assessment. As such they are consistent with the idea that fluency itself may be hedonically marked.

Subliminal Gestalt grouping: Evidence of perceptual grouping by proximity and similarity in absence of conscious perception

Previous studies making use of indirect processing measures have shown that perceptual grouping can occur outside the focus of attention. However, no previous study has examined the possibility of subliminal processing of perceptual grouping. The present work steps forward in the study of perceptual organization, reporting direct evidence of subliminal processing of Gestalt patterns. In two masked priming experiments, Gestalt patterns grouped by proximity or similarity that induced either a horizontal or vertical global orientation of the stimuli were presented as masked primes and followed by visible targets that could be congruent or incongruent with the orientation of the primes. The results showed a reliable priming effect in the complete absence of prime awareness for both proximity and similarity grouping principles. These findings suggest that a phenomenal report of the Gestalt pattern is not mandatory to observe an effect on the response based on the global properties of Gestalt stimuli.

Affective Priming Using Facial Expressions Modulates Liking for Abstract Art

We examined the influence of affective priming on the appreciation of abstract artworks using an evaluative priming task. Facial primes (showing happiness, disgust or no emotion) were presented under brief (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony, SOA = 20ms) and extended (SOA = 300ms) conditions. Differences in aesthetic liking for abstract paintings depending on the emotion expressed in the preceding primes provided a measure of the priming effect. The results showed that, for the extended SOA, artworks were liked more when preceded by happiness primes and less when preceded by disgust primes. Facial expressions of happiness, though not of disgust, exerted similar effects in the brief SOA condition. Subjective measures and a forced-choice task revealed no evidence of prime awareness in the suboptimal condition. Our results are congruent with findings showing that the affective transfer elicited by priming biases evaluative judgments, extending previous research to the domain of aesthetic appreciation.

The informational correlates of conscious and nonconscious face-gender perception

We used a face-gender repetition priming paradigm to precisely map the spatial frequencies (SFs) that influence observers' responses under different prime awareness conditions. A visible prime condition was set up by presenting the stimulus sequence mask-blank-prime-blank-mask-target and an invisible prime condition by switching the order of the masks and the blanks (see also Dehaene et al., 2001). The prime faces (~4.6° × 3.1°) were randomly filtered trial-by-trial according to the SF bubbles technique (Willenbockel, Fiset et al., 2010). Classification vectors, derived by summing the SF filters from each trial weighted by observers' transformed response times, revealed that SFs around 12 cycles per face width modulated responses in both prime awareness conditions. The significant SFs closely matched those optimal for accurate performance in a direct face-gender classification paradigm. Surprisingly, the significant SFs facilitated observers' responses in the visible prime condition, whereas they slowed responses in the invisible prime condition. Our findings suggest that SF tuning per se remains robust under different prime awareness conditions but that diagnostic visual cues might be utilized in a qualitatively different fashion as a function of awareness.

The magnitude of priming effects is not independent of prime awareness. Reply to Francken, van Gaal, & de Lange (2011)

The magnitude of priming effects is not independent of prime awareness. Reply to Francken, van Gaal, & de Lange (2011)

The Validity of d′ Measures

Subliminal perception occurs when prime stimuli that participants claim not to be aware of nevertheless influence subsequent processing of a target. This claim, however, critically depends on correct methods to assess prime awareness. Typically, d′ (“d prime”) tasks administered after a priming task are used to establish that people are unable to discriminate between different primes. Here, we show that such d′ tasks are influenced by the nature of the target, by attentional factors, and by the delay between stimulus presentation and response. Our results suggest that the standard d′ task is not a straightforward measure of prime visibility. We discuss the implications of our findings for subliminal perception research.

Stimulus/Response Learning in Masked Congruency Priming of Faces: Evidence for Covert Mental Classifications?

Reaction times for categorization of a probe face according to its sex or fame were contrasted as a function of whether the category of a preceding, sandwich-masked prime face was congruent or incongruent. Prime awareness was measured by the ability to later categorize the primes, and this was close to chance and typically uncorrelated with priming. When prime faces were never presented as visible probes within a test, priming was not reliable; when prime faces were also seen as probes, priming was only reliable if visible and masked presentation of faces were interleaved (not simply if primes had been visible in a previous session). In the latter case, priming was independent of experimentally induced face-response or face-category contingencies, ruling out any simple form of stimulus-response learning. We conclude that the reliable masked congruency priming reflects bindings between stimuli and multiple, abstract classifications that can be generated both overtly and covertly.

Affective priming with auditory speech stimuli

Four experiments explored the applicability of auditory stimulus presentation in affective priming tasks. In Experiment 1, it was found that standard affective priming effects occur when prime and target words are presented simultaneously via headphones similar to a dichotic listening procedure. In Experiment 2, stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was varied in the same procedure. Significant priming effects occurred only when prime and target stimuli were presented simultaneously or partly overlapping (SOA = 250 ms), but not if they were presented clearly separable (SOA = 500 ms). In Experiment 3, an auditory masking procedure was implemented with binaural prime and target presentation to demonstrate that auditory priming effects also occur under conditions of limited prime awareness. In Experiment 4, an unmasked auditory priming procedure with binaural prime and target presentations generated comparable affective priming effects in a social attitude domain (i.e., intergroup attitudes). Results of all four experiments show that affective priming effects can be found with auditory presented stimuli, thus enlarging the tool box of affective priming research.

A Meta-Analysis of Positive and Negative Age Stereotype Priming Effects on Behavior Among Older Adults

Evidence has shown that age stereotypes influence several behavioral outcomes in later life via stereotype valence-outcome assimilation; however, a direct comparison of positive versus negative age stereotyping effects has not yet been made. PsycINFO and Pubmed were used to generate a list of articles (n = 137), of which seven were applicable. From these articles, means, standard errors (SEs), and other relevant data were extracted for 52 dependent measures: 27 involved negative age primes and 25 involved positive age primes. Independent samples analysis of variance tests were used to explore the influence of prime valence and awareness on behavior compared with a neutral referent. A significant main effect for prime valence was found such that negative age priming elicited a greater effect on behavior than did positive age priming (F(1,48) = 4.32, p = .04). In fact, the effects from negative age priming were almost three times larger than those of positive priming when compared with a neutral baseline. This effect was not influenced by prime awareness, discipline of study, study design, or research group. Findings show that negative age stereotyping has a much stronger influence on important behavioral outcomes among older adults than does positive age stereotyping.

Inhibition from blinked category labels: Combining the attentional blink and the semantic priming paradigm

In the present experiment we combined the attentional blink and the semantic priming paradigm. We used category labels as primes and category exemplars as targets. The prime stimuli were embedded into a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream and presented at varying positions after a to-be-identified stimulus, albeit the stimulus–onset asynchrony between primes and targets remained constant throughout the experiment. As a result, participants’ prime awareness was reduced in some trials although the prime duration was always at levels usually considered to elicit awareness (60 ms). After each RSVP there was a forced choice discrimination test to assess participants’ prime awareness. When subjects could not identify the prime stimuli we observed slower responses to related as compared to unrelated targets. This result confirms results found with repeated masked primes. However, whereas former studies assessed unawareness rather coarsely at the level of individual participants, here unawareness was tested on a trial-by-trial basis.