Prime Duration Research Articles

The Frequency Attenuation Effect in Identity and Associative Priming

Three lexical decision experiments were carried out, where the masked priming paradigm is used to study the role of the frequency attenuation effect (more priming in low-frequency target words than in high-frequency target words) in repetition and associative priming, manipulating Prime Duration (PD) and Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA). A new concept was introduced, Minimum Time Threshold (MTT), this is, the minimum time interval of exposure to the masked word in order to become aware of it. Results support the notion that MTT is a key to the appearance of the frequency attenuation effect when enough word processing time is allowed. Results do not support the unified explanation of masked priming and long-term priming as proposed by Bodner and Masson (2001). Moreover, information feedback from the semantic level was not the reason for the frequency attenuation effect in repetition priming.

The temporal dynamics of masked repetition picture priming effects: Manipulations of stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) and prime duration

The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) and masked repetition priming to examine the time-course of picture processing. We manipulated the stimulus-onset asynchrony (110 ms, 230 ms, 350 ms, and 470 ms) between repeated and unrepeated prime–target pairs while holding the prime duration constant (50 ms) (Experiment 1) as well as the prime durations (30 ms, 50 ms, 70 ms, and 90 ms) (Experiment 2) with a constant SOA of 110 ms in a masked repetition priming paradigm with pictures. The aim of this study was to further elucidate the mechanisms underlying previously observed ERP components in masked priming with pictures. We found that both the N/P190 and N400 are modulated by changes in prime duration and SOA, however, it appears that longer prime exposure rather than a longer SOA leads to more in-depth processing as indexed by larger N400 effects.

Priming amodal completion of quasi-regular forms

Purpose: There are two main views on how we perceive an occluded form as a whole object. These views are the local and the global views on amodal completion. Usually the tension between these approaches is tested by using occluded regular forms. This study took a step further by investigating more natural cases of occlusion using quasi-regular forms in a primed-matching experiment. Methods: In the primed matching paradigm a prime is presented before the participants have to make a judgement on the similarity of two forms, where primes congruent with the test pairs speed up the decision. We showed participants an occluded form as a prime (with a prime duration of 500ms), which should facilitate the response on the test pairs that are congruent with the completed form (either global or local) of the occlusion prime. To compare the results of the occlusion primes to the completed primes, we also used globally and locally completed forms as primes. Results: Occlusion primes brought about the same results as global primes, but not as local primes. That is, they both sped up responses for the global test pairs. Thus, the completion of occluded forms seems to be dominated by global influences. Conclusions: Global influences on amodal occlusion are apparent even with quasi-regular forms. This supports the notion that the global way of completing an occluded object is a robust finding.

L’amorçage orthographique masqué dans la reconnaissance des mots écrits: Données empiriques et perspectives théoriques.

The present paper reviews the main studies that have been conducted on the effects of masked orthographic priming in written word recognition. Empirical data accumulated over the last two decades are exposed by considering three factors that play a role in the effects of orthographic priming: prime lexicality, prime duration, and target and/or prime orthographic neighbourhood. The theoretical implications of these data are discussed in light of the two major frameworks of visual word recognition, the serial search and the interactive activation. As a whole, the interactive activation hypothesis seems to be more appropriate to account for the empirical data.

Morphological effects in children word reading: A priming study in fourth graders

A growing corpus of evidence suggests that morphology could play a role in reading acquisition, and that young readers could be sensitive to the morphemic structure of written words. In the present experiment, we examined whether and when morphological information is activated in word recognition. French fourth graders made visual lexical decisions to derived words preceded by primes sharing either a morphological or an orthographic relationship with the target. Results showed significant and equivalent facilitation priming effects in cases of morphologically and orthographically related primes at the shortest prime duration, and a significant facilitation priming effect in the case of only morphologically related primes at the longer prime duration. Thus, these results strongly suggest that a morphological level is involved in children's visual word recognition, although it is not distinct from the formal one at an early stage of word processing.

Semantic transparency and masked morphological priming: The case of prefixed words

In four lexical decision experiments, we investigated masked morphological priming with Dutch prefixed words. Reliable effects of morphological relatedness were obtained with visual primes and visual targets in the absence of effects due to pure form overlap. In certain conditions, priming effects were significantly greater with semantically transparent prefixed primes (e.g., rename-name) relative to the priming effects obtained with semantically opaque prefixed words (e.g., relate-late), even with very brief (40-msec) prime durations. With visual primes and auditory targets (cross-modal priming), significant facilitation was found in all related prime conditions, independent of whether or not primes were morphologically related to targets. The results are interpreted within a bimodal hierarchical model of word recognition in which morphological effects arise through the interplay of sublexical (morpho-orthographic) and supralexical (morpho-semantic) representations. The word stimuli from this study may be downloaded as supplemental materials from http://mc.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Letter and grapheme perception in English and Dutch

In the study of reading, there is a debate about whether letters or graphemes are the primary units of perception. A promising data basis for empirically contributing to this debate can be gained from measuring the perception of single vowel letters compared to vowel digraphs. We used letter detection with masked pseudoword primes on pseudoword targets among skilled native readers in order to test for the existence and time course of vowel digraph effects during reading in deep (English) and shallow (Dutch) orthographies. Selecting these two languages, which are similar in terms of syllabic structure, allowed us to use exactly the same pseudoword stimuli. Results indicate that whereas the Dutch readers show letter effects at short prime durations and digraph effects at longer prime durations, the English readers show only letter effects. These findings are inconsistent with a strong version of the claim that graphemes are perceptual in nature, but consistent with models of reading acquisition and skilled reading that predict that, although letter effects always precede grapheme effects, grapheme activation proceeds faster in relatively shallow orthographies than in relatively deep ones.

A task-difficulty artifact in subliminal priming

Subliminal priming is said to occur when a subliminal prime influences the classification of a subsequent target. Most subliminal-priming claims are based on separate target- and prime-classification tasks. Because primes are intended to be subliminal, the prime-classification task is difficult, and the target-classification task is easy. To assess whether this task-difficulty difference accounts for previous claims of subliminal priming, we manipulated the ease of the prime-classification task by intermixing long-duration (visible) primes with short-duration (near liminal) ones. In Experiment 1, this strategy of intermixing long-duration primes raised classification of the short-duration ones. In Experiments 2 and 3, prime duration was lowered in such a way that prime classification was at chance in intermixed presentations. Under these conditions, we failed to observe any priming effects; hence, previous demonstrations of subliminal priming may simply have reflected a task-difficulty artifact.

Multiple dimensions of relatedness among words: Conjoint effects of form and meaning in word recognition.

Words can be similar with respect to form (viz., spelling, pronunciation), meaning, or both form and meaning. In three lexical decision experiments (48 ms forward masked, 116 ms, and 250 ms SOAs), targets (e.g., FLOAT) followed prime words related by form only (e.g., COAT), meaning only (e.g., SWIM), or form and meaning (e.g., BOAT). BOAT-FLOAT and SWIM-FLOAT type pairs showed reduced target decision latencies relative to unrelated controls when primes were unmasked, but not when they were masked, and the magnitude of facilitation increased with increasing prime duration. By contrast, COAT-FLOAT type pairs produced significant inhibition at the shorter two prime durations. In all three experiments, including at the shortest SOA, (BOAT-FLOAT) pairs that shared form and meaning differed from COAT-FLOAT type pairs that shared only form. We discuss the similarity of the BOAT-FLOAT pattern to that of morphological facilitation and argue that if the same mechanism underlies both outcomes then activation of a shared morphemic representation need not underlie morphological facilitation.

Temporal integration in vowel perception

Psychoacoustic research suggests that multiple auditory channels process incoming sounds over temporal windows of different durations, resulting in multiple auditory representations being available to higher-level processes. The current experiments investigate the size of the temporal window used in vowel quality perception using an acoustic priming paradigm with nonspeech and speech primes of varying duration. In experiment 1, identification of vowel targets was facilitated by acoustically matched nonspeech primes. The magnitude of this effect was greatest for the shortest (25 and 50 ms) primes, remained level at medium (100 and 150 ms) duration primes, and declined significantly at longer prime durations, suggesting that the auditory stages of vowel quality perception integrate sensory input over a relatively short temporal window. In experiment 2, the same vowel targets were primed by speech stimuli, consisting of vowels using the same duration values as those in experiment 1. A different pattern of results emerged with the greatest priming effects found for primes of around 150 ms and less priming at the shorter and longer durations, indicating that longer-scale temporal processes operate at higher levels of analysis.

Priming of simple and complex scene layout: Rapid function from the intermediate level.

Three experiments examined the time course of layout priming with photographic scenes varying in complexity (number of objects). Primes were presented for varying durations (800-50 ms) before a target scene with 2 spatial probes; observers indicated whether the left or right probe was closer to viewpoint. Reaction time was the main measure. Scene primes provided maximum benefits with 200 ms or less prime duration, indicating that scene priming is rapid enough to influence everyday distance perception. The time course of prime processing was similar for simple and complex scene primes and for upright and inverted primes, suggesting that the prime representation was intermediate level in nature.

Bricks, Butter, and Slices of Cucumber: Investigating Semantic Influences in Amodal Completion

Objects in our world are partly occluded by other objects or sometimes even partly by themselves. Amodal completion is a visual process that enables us to perceive these objects as complete and is influenced by both local object information, present at contour intersections, and overall (global) object shape. In contrast, object semantics have been demonstrated to play no role in amodal completion but do so only by means of subjective methods. In the present study, object semantics were operationalised by material hardness of familiar objects which was varied to test whether it leaves amodal completion unaffected. Specifically, we investigated the perceived form of joined naturalistic objects that differ in perceived material hardness, employing the primed matching paradigm. In experiments 1 and 2, probing three different prime durations, amodal completion of a notched circular object changes systematically with the hardness of the object it was joined to. These results are in line with the view that amodal completion is inseparable from general object interpretation, during which object semantics may dominate.

Emergence of global shape processing continues through adolescence.

The developmental trajectory of perceptual organization in humans is unclear. This study investigated perceptual grouping abilities across a wide age range (8-30 years) using a classic compound letter global/local (GL) task and a more fine-grained microgenetic prime paradigm (MPP) with both few- and many-element hierarchical displays. In the GL task, contrary to adults, both children and adolescents exhibited a classic local bias. In the MPP, all 3 age groups evinced a bias to individuate the few-element displays; however, the ability to encode the global shape of the many-element displays at the short prime durations increased with age. These results indicate that the full process of garnering shape information from perceptual grouping, which is essential for the ability to do fast and efficient object recognition and identification, develops late into adolescence.

Effects of repetition priming on recognition memory: Testing a perceptual fluency-disfluency model.

Five experiments explored the effects of immediate repetition priming on episodic recognition (the "Jacoby-Whitehouse effect") as measured with forced-choice testing. These experiments confirmed key predictions of a model adapted from D. E. Huber and R. C. O'Reilly's (2003) dynamic neural network of perception. In this model, short prime durations pre-activate primed items, enhancing perceptual fluency and familiarity, whereas long prime durations result in habituation, causing perceptual disfluency and less familiarity. Short duration primes produced a recognition preference for primed words (Experiments 1, 2, and 5), whereas long duration primes produced a preference against primed words (Experiments 3, 4, and 5). Experiment 2 found prime duration effects even when participants accurately identified short duration primes. A cued-recall task included in Experiments 3, 4, and 5 found priming effects only for recognition trials that were followed by cued-recall failure. These results suggest that priming can enhance as well as lower familiarity, without affecting recollection. Experiment 4 provided a manipulation check on this procedure through a delay manipulation that preferentially affected recognition followed by cued-recall success.

ERP effects of short interval masked associative and repetition priming

In a previous study we used event-related potentials to dissociate semantic (associative) and repetition priming when prime words were masked below (40 ms primes) and above (80 and 120 ms primes) levels of awareness (Holcomb, P. J., Reder, L., Misra, M., & Grainger, J. (2005). Masked priming: an event-related brain potential study of repetition and semantic effects. Cognitive Brain Research, 24, 155--172.). While robust priming effects were present on the N400 component regardless of the prime duration in the repetition priming experiment, in the semantic priming experiment significant priming effects were only obtained when primes were consciously detected. In the current study we again compared associative and repetition priming, but this time within a single experiment and using a short interval priming paradigm. As in several recent studies we again found robust repetition priming effects on both the N400 and an earlier index of priming, the N250. However, there was no evidence of any priming effect in the semantic/associative condition. The findings are discussed in the context of the functional significance of masked priming effects.

Orientation Sensitivity at Different Stages of Object Processing: Evidence from Repetition Priming and Naming

BackgroundAn ongoing debate in the object recognition literature centers on whether the shape representations used in recognition are coded in an orientation-dependent or orientation-invariant manner. In this study, we asked whether the nature of the object representation (orientation-dependent vs orientation-invariant) depends on the information-processing stages tapped by the task.Methodology/ FindingsWe employed a repetition priming paradigm in which briefly presented masked objects (primes) were followed by an upright target object which had to be named as rapidly as possible. The primes were presented for variable durations (ranging from 16 to 350 ms) and in various image-plane orientations (from 0° to 180°, in 30° steps). Significant priming was obtained for prime durations above 70 ms, but not for prime durations of 16 ms and 47 ms, and did not vary as a function of prime orientation. In contrast, naming the same objects that served as primes resulted in orientation-dependent reaction time costs.Conclusions/SignificanceThese results suggest that initial processing of object identity is mediated by orientation-independent information and that orientation costs in performance arise when objects are consolidated in visual short-term memory in order to be reported.

Prime diagnosticity in short-term repetition priming: Is primed evidence discounted, even when it reliably indicates the correct answer?

The authors conducted 4 repetition priming experiments that manipulated prime duration and prime diagnosticity in a visual forced-choice perceptual identification task. The strength and direction of prime diagnosticity produced marked effects on identification accuracy, but those effects were resistant to subsequent changes of diagnosticity. Participants learned to associate different diagnosticities with primes of different durations but not with primes presented in different colors. Regardless of prime diagnosticity, preference for a primed alternative covaried negatively with prime duration, suggesting that even for diagnostic primes, evidence discounting remains an important factor. A computational model, with the assumption that adaptation to the statistics of the experiment modulates the level of evidence discounting, accounted for these results.

The dynamics of integration and separation: ERP, MEG, and neural network studies of immediate repetition effects.

This article presents data and theory concerning the fundamental question of how the brain achieves a balance between integrating and separating perceptual information over time. This theory was tested in the domain of word reading by examining brain responses to briefly presented words that were either new or immediate repetitions. Critically, the prime that immediately preceded the target was presented either for 150 ms or 2,000 ms, thus examining a situation of perceptual integration versus one of perceptual separation. Electrophysiological responses during the first 200 ms following presentation of the target word were assessed using electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings. As predicted by a dynamic neural network model with habituation, repeated words produced less of a perceptual response, and this effect diminished with increased prime duration. Using dynamics that best accounted for the behavioral transition from positive to negative priming with increasing prime duration, the model correctly predicted the time course of the event-related potential (ERP) repetition effects under the assumption that letter processing is the source of observed P100 repetition effects and word processing is the source of observed N170 repetition effects.

Priming of visual object processing : effect of prime duration and task

Priming of visual object processing : effect of prime duration and task

Immediate priming and cognitive aftereffects.

Three forced-choice perceptual word identification experiments tested the claim that transitions from positive to negative priming as a function of increasing prime duration are due to cognitive aftereffects. These aftereffects are similar in nature to perceptual aftereffects that produce a negative image due to overexposure and habituation to a stimulus. Each experiment tested critical predictions that come from including habituation in a dynamic neural network with multiple levels of processing. The success of this account in explaining the dynamics of repetition priming, associative-semantic priming, and forward masking effects suggests that habituation is a useful mechanism for reducing source confusion between successively presented stimuli. Implications are considered for visible persistence, repetition blindness, attention-based negative priming, attentional blink, inhibition of return, the negative compatibility effect, affect priming, and flanker preview effects.