cognition lab - psychology - bates college

Abstract: Reaction times and error rates to a target’s identity are impaired when the target is presented in a location that mismatches the response required, relative to situations where the location of the target and required response overlap (the Simon effect) and the same is true when the target's identity conveys spatial information (the spatial Stroop effect). Prior studies have found that visual versions of the spatial Stroop effect are magnified when alerting cues appear before the target and results are consistent with a dual-route framework where alerting cues boost automatic stimulus-response motor associations through the direct processing route. However, the influence of alerting signals on auditory versions of the spatial Stroop effect have not been tested and there are reasons to believe that the alerting-congruency interaction may differ across stimulus modality. In two experiments the effects of alerting cues on auditory (Experiment 1; N=98) and visual (Experiment 2; N=97) spatial Stroop effects are examined. Results show that alerting cues boost the spatial Stroop effect with visual stimuli but not auditory stimuli and a distributional analysis provides support for there being modality differences in the decay (or inhibition) of response-code activation. Implications for explanations of the alerting-congruence interaction are discussed.

Abstract: Object substitution masking (OSM) is a type of masking where target visibility plummets when surrounded by a four-dot mask with delayed offset. However, target visibility has also been shown to improve at prolonged mask durations (recovery). Here we show that both OSM and recovery are affected by target-mask similarity. In Experiment 1 (N=32) letters were used as the mask and target and recovery was observed even at short mask offset delays when the target and mask were dissimilar, but masking was found when the target and mask were the same and only switched to recovery at prolonged mask durations. In Experiment 2 (N=25) the influence of object level and retinal level similarity were investigated by using pictures of objects taken from different vantage points. Here, masking and recovery were most strongly influenced by task-relevant features. Implications of these data for theories of object substitution masking and reentrant processing are discussed.

Abstract: Prior work has found a negative priming effect for a sequence (Cock, Berry, & Buchner, 2002; Hughes & Jones, 2003) and more purely time-based negative priming has also been identified (Kahan, Slowiaczek, Altschuler & Harrison, 2020). Though sequential effects have been reported with both visual and auditory stimuli, only visual stimuli have been used in experiments examining purely temporal negative priming. In this paper sequential and temporal negative priming are compared across modalities. Prime trials included random presentation of a target (auditory bird chirp or visual X), a non-target (auditory dog bark or visual O) and two neutral stimuli (auditory computer beeps or empty visual boxes). Probe trials included random presentation of the target and three neutral stimuli. Participants indicated the temporal location of the target. On 88% of the trials, participants (N=119 in Experiment 1; N=65 in Experiment 2) indicated the location of the non-target stimulus from the prime trial. Results showed an increase in response time when the temporal location of the probe’s target was the same as the location of the non-target stimulus from the prime trial, but this only occurred when the prime was presented more slowly. Experiment 2 tested, and falsified, the hypothesis that a fixed amount of time on the prime is necessary in order to bind features of the non-target stimulus with temporal and sequential positions. Together these data show that sequential and temporal negative priming effects generalize across modality and that relative rather than fixed timing is critical. Implications for theories of negative priming are discussed.

Abstract: The mechanisms underlying attention, distraction, and cognitive control have been widely studied, and results consistently show that reaction times are affected by alerting cues as well as by concurrent distraction. In addition, when distractors have pre-existing directional motor associations, alerting and distractor congruency interact in a manner where distractors have a larger effect when people are alerted to an upcoming target relative to when people are not alerted to the target’s presentation. However, does a concurrent working memory load moderate this interaction in multitasking experiments, and if so, does it magnify or suppress this effect? The current study (N=40) finds that although a memory-load significantly slows reaction times it does not moderate the alerting-congruency interaction. Discussion focuses on theoretical and applied implications of this empirical result.

Abstract: Whether attention is allocated to an entire word or can be confined to part of a word was examined in an experiment using a visual composite task. Participants saw a study word, a cue to attend to either the right or left half, and a test word, and indicated if the cued half of the words (e.g., left) was the same (e.g., TOLD-TONE) or different (e.g., TOLD-WINE). Prior research using this task reports a larger congruency effect for low-frequency words relative to high-frequency words but extraneous variables were not equated. In this study (N = 33), lexical (orthographic neighbourhood density) and sublexical (bigram frequency) variables were controlled, and word frequency was manipulated. Results indicate that word frequency does not moderate the degree to which parts of a word can be selectively attended/ignored. Response times to high-frequency words were faster than response times to low-frequency words but the congruency effect was equivalent. The data support a capacity model where attention is equally distributed across low-frequency and high-frequency words but low-frequency words require additional processing resources.

Abstract: Negative priming provides one useful measure of attentional focus and cognitive control, requirements of most domains of life (driving, work, play, etc.). Until now, 2 types of negative priming have been identified: identity negative priming and location negative priming. These effects are of particular interest because individuals who have difficulty ignoring distraction (e.g., individuals with schizophrenia and attention-deficit disorder) exhibit reduced levels of negative priming. In the present experiments (N = 187), we report an entirely new type of negative priming based on when in time a target appears (temporal negative priming) rather than its identity or spatial location. Results indicate that responses to a target’s temporal position were impaired when a distractor previously appeared at that same relative temporal position. In addition, temporal positioning was teased apart from response-based mechanisms and both were found to independently contribute to temporal negative priming. This result indicates that mechanisms of cognitive control trigger both response-based and memory-based processes.

Abstract: Precrastination is the tendency many individuals have to complete a task as soon as possible in order to get it out of the way [Rosenbaum, D. A., Gong, L., & Potts, C. A. (2014). Pre-crastination: Hastening subgoal completion at the expense of extra physical effort. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1487–1496.]. The current study (N = 48) examined whether precrastination is affected by a concurrent memory load as predicted by the cognitive-load-reduction (CLEAR) hypothesis. Participants completed a bucket-carrying task under different memory-load conditions. In addition, the amount of physical effort was manipulated by changing the distance people needed to walk while carrying the weighted buckets. The tendency to precrastinate by picking up a near bucket and carrying it further than necessary was affected by the memory load. People were more likely to precrastinate when doing so resulted in the more rapid renewal of cognitive resources and were less likely to precrastinate when this required that the memory load be held for a longer period of time. These data are consistent with the position that precrastination is linked with working memory resources and occurs in an attempt to clear items from a mental to-do list.

Abstract: Previous research has found a greater congruency effect when participants are alerted in the Attention Network Test relative to situations where participants are not alerted. However, the interaction between alerting and congruency that has been reported with arrow stimuli as well as in the Simon task does not generalize to the Stroop task (Schneider, 2019). To test the hypothesis that the interaction between alerting and congruency requires pre-existing directional associations, Experiment 1 (N = 40) used numeric stimuli since numbers are associated with spatial directions (i.e., the SNARC effect; spatial-numerical association of response codes). Results show the typical interaction between congruency and alerting. Experiment 2 (N = 40) further tested this by replacing numeric stimuli with characters that do not have directional associations and the interaction disappeared. Together these data support the proposal that alerting boosts stimulus processing, which facilitates responses to the target, but also enhances stimulus-response directional associations, which magnifies effects of the distractors.

Abstract: The current study examined whether priming interdependent relative to independent self-knowledge would induce different thinking styles among Western participants, and whether this would, in turn, affect the speed of detecting changes in a change-blindness task. Based on predictions from the semantic–procedural interface model, we predicted that participants would attend more to the context following an interdependent self-construal priming manipulation than following an independent self-construal priming manipulation. Sixty individuals were asked to circle the pronouns we/us/our or I/me/my in a paragraph of text. Following this, all participants were shown alternating images in a change-blindness task. Reaction times and accuracy rates at identifying focal and contextual changes were measured. Though our Western participants were faster at identifying changes in focal objects relative to contextual objects, this difference in reaction times was reduced in half for participants who were primed with interdependency (we/us/our pronoun circling) relative to independence (I/me/my pronoun circling). This result is consistent with the claim that interdependent and independent self-construals are stored in a semantic network which is connected to different procedural modes of thinking and that by priming these different views of the self, participants activate a mode of thinking that influences attention.

Abstract: Vision is a multistep process that begins when light stimulates cells in the retina, with multiple processes quickly cascading throughout the brain, providing new information to inform potential actions. Complicating this is the fact that vision does not only proceed unidirectionally, or bottom-up, but in every region of the brain, reentrant or top-down signals influence earlier stages by feeding activity back to previously activated brain regions. This reentrant processing is both iterative and dynamic. In this chapter I review several new developments in dot-based masking that serve as tools for studying how this dynamic flow of information helps us to make sense of the visual environment. Four-dot object-substitution masking, which arises at the whole-object level, is contrasted with two newly discovered edge-based masking effects (object trimming and object binding). I then review the evidence which shows that by examining these effects, researchers are gaining a more solid understanding of the role reentrant processes play in conscious awareness, the role reentrant processes play in feature binding, the level at which objects are processed when the reentrant sweep begins, and whether reentrant pathways carry top-down information about meaning and cultural expectations that can guide the edge-assembly process before objects have even been recognized.

Abstract: Our everyday decisions and memories are inadvertently influenced by self-relevant information. For example, we are faster and more accurate at making perceptual judgments about stimuli associated with ourselves, such as our own face or name, as compared with familiar non-self-relevant stimuli. Humphreys and Sui propose a 'self-attention network' to account for these effects, wherein self-relevant stimuli automatically capture our attention and subsequently enhance the perceptual processing of self-relevant information. We propose that the masked priming paradigm and continuous flash suppression represent two ways to experimentally examine these controversial claims.

Abstract: Words with negative valence capture attention and this increase in attentional resources typically enhances perceptual processing. Recently, data using continuous flash suppression (CFS) appear to contradict this. In prior research when Chinese words were unconsciously presented in CFS and contrast was raised until the word was identified, RTs to identify words with negative valence were slower than RTs to words with neutral valence. This result might be limited to situations where a logographic writing system is used and could reflect a type of cognitive aftereffect where previewing the word causes habituation. Data (N = 60) indicate that results generalize from a logographic (Chinese) to an orthographic writing system (English). In addition, when words were previewed in CFS RTs were slowed for words with negative valence relative to words with neutral valence and this was reversed when words were shown binocularly. Implications for theories of unconscious word processing and cognitive aftereffects are discussed.

Abstract: It has been just over a century since Gestalt psychologists described the factors that contribute to the holistic processing of visually presented stimuli. Recent research indicates that holistic processing may come at a cost; specifically, the perception of holistic forms may reduce the visibility of constituent parts. In the present experiment, we examined change detection and change identification accuracy with Kanizsa rectangle patterns that were arranged to either form a Gestalt whole or not. Results from an experiment with 62 participants support this trade-off in processing holistic forms. Holistic processing improved the detection of change but obstructed its identification. Results are discussed in terms of both their theoretical significance and their application in areas ranging from baggage screening and the detection of changes in radiological images to the systems that are used to generate composite images of perpetrators on the basis of eyewitness reports.

Abstract: The automatic activation of phonological and orthographic information in auditory and visual word processing was examined using a task-set procedure. Participants engaged in a phonological task (i.e., determining whether the letter “a” in a word sounded like /e/ or /æ/) or an orthographic task (i.e., determining whether the sound /s/ in a word was spelled with an “s” or a “c”). Participants were cued regarding which task to perform simultaneously with, or 750 ms before, a clear or degraded target. The stimulus clarity effect (i.e., clear words responded to faster than degraded words) was absorbed into the time that it took participants to identify the task on the basis of the cue in a simultaneous cue–target as compared to a delayed cue–target condition, but only for the orthographic task. These data are consistent with the claim that prelexical processing occurs in a capacity-free manner upon stimulus presentation when participants are trying to extract orthographic codes from words presented in the visual and auditory modalities. Such affirmative data were not obtained when participants attempted to extract phonological codes from words, since here the effects of stimulus clarity and cue delay were additive.

Abstract: One way to prioritize limited mental resources for perception is to take into account the familiarity of an object to the perceiver. But does an objects’ familiarity influence perception only after an object’s shape has been determined, or does it influence the decision of which edges are considered part of that object? Here we compare the influence of target familiarity on whole-object masking (object-substitution masking) with its influence on edge-based masking. Two new aspects of edge-based masking are reported. First, we demonstrate that mask and target edges do not only compete (object trimming) but that mask and target edges can also cooperate (object binding), confirming that these masking effects are indeed occurring during the process of object formation and not after object shape has been determined. Second, we find that object trimming and binding are each less likely if the target is linked with a representation already present in long-term memory. Since trimming and binding effects arise very early in visual perception, these data indicate that existing long term memory representations influence the earliest stages of object assembly, before the system has even decided which edges to include in the object.

Abstract: Although some experimental research suggests that location-based negative priming (L-NP; slowed responding to stimuli presented at previously ignored locations) and inhibition of return (IOR; slowed responding to stimuli presented at previously attended locations) are caused by a common underlying mechanism, there is reason to doubt this claim. Evidence for this is briefly reviewed and four experiments are reported where L-NP and IOR are examined under different memory load conditions. We found that L-NP remained intact under a visual-spatial and verbal memory load (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) in accordance with predictions, but a visual-spatial memory load eliminated IOR (Experiment 3). These data support claims that IOR is dependent on visual-spatial memory and are the first to establish that L-NP, unlike identity-based negative priming (I-NP), is not reduced with a memory load. These data bolster claims that at least one of the processes that contribute to L-NP differs from the processes that produce IOR.

Abstract: The negative compatibility effect (NCE) is the finding that, under certain conditions, responses to targets are faster when preceded by incompatible primes than when preceded by compatible primes and this effect now appears to be caused, at least in part, by facilitation resulting from perceptual interactions between the prime, mask, and target when task-relevant masks are used (Lleras & Enns, 2004, 2005, 2006). The current experiment reports a new methodology that allows us to systematically explore the ways in which these perceptual effects influence reaction times and error rates. The data indicate that mask–target overlap, mask–prime overlap, and having a task-relevant prime all affect performance in experiments examining the NCE. In addition, our data provide additional support that object-based updating contributes to the NCE when perceptual interactions between stimuli are likely.

Abstract: Numerous experiments have examined whether moving stimuli capture spatial attention but none have sought to determine whether visual features of looming and receding objects are extracted in a capacity-free manner. The current experiment (N =28) used the task-choice procedure originated by Besner and Care (2003) to examine this possibility. Stimuli were presented in 3D space by manipulating retinal disparity. Results indicate that features of an object are extracted in a capacity-free manner for both looming and receding objects for participants who consciously perceive motion but not for participants who do not consciously perceive motion. These results suggest that the cognitive system is biased to process potentially animate objects, perhaps because of the evolutionary advantage this cognitive ability may provide.

Abstract: The task-choice procedure provides a way for assessing whether stimuli are processed immediately upon presentation and in parallel with other cognitive operations. In this procedure, the task changes on a trial-by-trial basis and the cue informing participants about the task appears either before or simultaneously with the target, which is either degraded or clear. Of interest is whether the effect of stimulus clarity will disappear when the cue is presented simultaneously with the target, suggesting capacity-free processing, or whether the effect of stimulus clarity will remain, suggesting target processing is delayed. Besner and Care developed this procedure using nonword targets and found that phonological information was not extracted in parallel with deciphering the task cue. The current experiment examined whether phonological and orthographic information could be extracted from word and nonword stimuli in a capacity-free manner. Results indicate that in both tasks some processing does occur in a capacity-free manner when words are used but not when nonwords are used. These data may be consistent with interactive activation models which posit top-down lexical connections that facilitate the extraction of sublexical codes.

Abstract: Five experiments demonstrate that when dots appear beside a briefly presented target object, and persist on view longer than the target, the flanked object is perceptually altered by the dots. Three methods are used to explore this object trimming effect. Experiments 1–3 assess participants’ conscious reports of trimmed digits, Experiment 4 uses repetition priming to explore the target representation, and Experiment 5 examines the perception of apparent motion in trimmed targets. Results of all three methods indicate that object trimming is influenced by mechanisms of perceptual grouping that operate on target representations prior to conscious access. Separate contributions from visual crowding and backward masking are also identified. These results imply that common-onset masking does not always result from the target being substituted by the mask, but that target and mask can sometimes maintain separate mental representations.

Abstract: In the lexical decision task participants decide, as quickly and accurately as possible, whether a string of letters is, or is not, a properly spelled word, and reaction times and accuracy at making these responses are recorded. By understanding the factors that speed or slow lexical decision responses, psychologists are able to develop and test theories related to lexical memory (the mental store of words) and semantic memory (the mental store of word meaning and general world knowledge). This task originated out of research into mental chronometry (the study of human information processing and its time course) and has become the most widely used experimental technique for studying word recognition processes. This task has been used to assess how various factors affect word recognition, including: word frequency, word length, orthographic neighborhood density, stimulus degradation, number of syllables, number of morphemes, part of speech, and relatedness, to name just a few.

Abstract: People are generally slower to name the color of emotion-laden words than they are to name that of emotionally neutral words. However, an analysis of this emotional Stroop effect (Larsen, Mercer, & Balota, 2006) indicates that the emotion-laden words used are sometimes longer, have lower frequencies, and have smaller orthographic neighborhoods than the emotionally neutral words. This difference in word characteristics raises the possibility that the emotional Stroop effect is partly caused by lexical rather than by emotional aspects of the stimuli—a conclusion supported by the finding that reaction times to name the color of low-frequency words are longer than those for high-frequency words (Burt, 2002). To examine the relative contributions of valence and frequency in color naming, we had 64 participants complete an experiment in which each of these variables was manipulated in a 3 ? 2 factorial design; length, orthographic neighborhood density, and arousal were balanced. The data indicate that valence and word frequency interact in contributing to the emotional Stroop effect.

Abstract: Despite evidence for a high concentration of corticosteroid receptors in prefrontal cortex, little research has examined the relationship between cortisol and prefrontal cortical function other than working memory. We investigated the association between salivary cortisol levels and performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) of executive function and on a test of mental rotation (to test specificity of the relationship between cortisol and cognitive performance) in men and women (n = 116, ages 17-22). Higher cortisol levels at the beginning of the test session were associated with more errors in women on the WCST and fewer errors in men. However, men's cortisol levels were lower than women's at this point in time. Cortisol levels were not associated with mental rotation scores. Our results suggest that individual differences in cortisol levels among participants upon arrival to a test situation influence performance on a task involving the prefrontal cortex.

Abstract: An online demonstration, designed to enhance comprehension of Sternberg's (1966) short-term memory scanning task, involved rapidly searching under virtual cups for a ball. We randomly assigned students to 1 of 3 groups, all of whom read the same textbook description of Sternberg's work: A demonstration group used 3 search methods to look for balls under cups (analogous to searching items in memory), a graphing control group used 3 methods to click on buttons (both groups had equivalent practice examining reaction time graphs), and there was a text-only control. The demonstration group outperformed the controls on an online quiz.

Abstract: The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is designed to measure the strength of mental association between each of a pair of target categories (e.g., Black vs. White) and each of a pair of attributes (e.g., negative vs. positive). Recent work on the mere acceptance effect shows that, if one of the categories is the focus of attention, then an apparent preference for the focal category can emerge on the IAT, even when no such preference actually exists. It has been suggested that mere acceptance could influence responding on names-based racial IATs, perhaps leading to an exaggeration of anti-Black/pro-White bias. Whether such IATs can be influenced by a mere acceptance effect is unknown, though. By manipulating whether 'Black' or 'White' was the focal category on a names-based racial IAT, the present studies addressed this very issue. The results were consistent with the operation of mere acceptance effects, but not effects large enough to fully explain the appearance of bias on the IAT.

Abstract: When attention is divided, a briefly presented target surrounded by four small dots is difficult to identify when the dots persist beyond target offset, but not when these dots terminate with the target. This object-substitution masking effect likely reflects processes at both the image level and the object level. At the image level, visual contours of the mask make feature extraction difficult Recent data (Lleras & Moore, 2003) suggest that, at the object level, an object file is created for the target-plus-mask, and this single-object token later morphs into a single-object token containing the mask alone. In the present experiments, we used stimuli presented in 3-D space and apparent motion; the results indicate that object-substitution masking also arises when the mask and the target are represented in two separate object tokens and the mask token interferes with the target token.

Abstract: Responses to target words typically are faster and more accurate after associatively related primes (e.g., ‘orange-juice’) than after unrelated primes (e.g., ‘glue- juice’). This priming effect has been used as an index of semantic activation, and its elimination often is cited as evidence against semantic access. When participants are asked to perform a letter search on the prime, associative priming typically is eliminated, but repetition and morphological priming remain. It is possible that priming survives letter search when it arises from activity in codes that are represented before semantics. This experiment examined associative and phonological priming to determine whether priming from phonologically related rhymes would remain after letter search (e.g., ‘moose-juice’; rhyming items were orthographically dissimilar). When participants read the primes, equivalent associative and phonological priming effects were obtained; both effects were eliminated after letter search. The impact of letter search on semantic and phonological access and implications for the structural arrangement of lexical and semantic memory are discussed.

Abstract: Determined whether Gestalt grouping manipulations would moderate the masking effect. Groupings were manipulated by from, similarity of color, position, luminance polarity, and common region. It was predicted that more masking would be found when the dots formed a cohesive group than when the dots were ungrouped. The more object-like the mask appeared, the more likely it was predicted to replace the target as the object of perception. Five experiments (all with college students as subjects) were conducted. Results indicate that (1) masking was impervious to grouping by form, similarity of color, position, luminance polarity, and common region and (2) masking increased with the number of elements in the masking display.

Abstract: In these experiments, 2 letters were presented sequentially to the left and right of fixation, followed by pattern masks. Report was cued by spatial location (Experiments 1a, 1b, 2, 4, and 5) or temporal position (Experiments 3, 4, and 5). In all experiments, 2 identical letters on a trial resulted in reduced accuracy of report (repetition blindness; RB) for both the 1st and 2nd presented letters. This decrement was greater for the 2nd letter if subjects expected temporal cues, but tended to be greater for the Ist letter if they expected spatial cues. Analyses of errors and responses on catch trials indicated no bias against report of repetitions, and the repetition decrement did not interact with output order. The data are inconsistent with both type-refractoriness and memory-retrieval accounts of RB. A modified version of N. G. Kanwisher's (1987) token-individuation theory is proposed to account for the results.

Abstract: Evaluates evidence from the past 25 yrs relevant to M. I. Posner and C. R. R. Synder's (1985) and J. H. Neely's (1977) claim that words automatically activate their meanings. The authors focus on whether semantic activation (SA) is capacity free and can occur without intention. The authors argue that according to Posner and Synder's and Neely's definitions, which strongly implied that spatial attention plays no role in SA, SA is not automatic. However, if the focusing of spatial attention on individual letters within a word impairs visual feature integration for other letters in that word such that the word is not 'seen' (perceptually encoded even at a nonconscious level), then even the staunchest support of SA automaticity would not argue that SA should occur under those conditions. On the basis of the preponderance of evidence, the authors conclude that unless visual feature integration is impaired though misdirected spatial attention, SA is indeed automatics in that is unaffected by the intention for it to occur and by the amount and quality of the attentional resources allocated to it.

Abstract: Masked repetition and semantic priming effects were examined in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, a masked-prime lexical decision task followed a phase of detection, semantic, or repetition judgments about masked words. In Experiment 2 participants made speeded pronunciations to target words after they tried to identify masked primes, and the proportion of semantically and identically related prime-target pairs was varied. Center-surround theory (T. H. Carr & D. Dagenbach, 1990; D. Dagenbach, T. H. Carr, & A. Wilhelmsen, 1989) predicts positive repetition priming but negative semantic priming when people attempt, but fail, to extract the meanings of masked words. A retrospective prime-clarification account, in contrast, predicts that semantic and repetition priming effects will vary (being positive or negative) as a function of expectations about the prime-target relation. The data support a retrospective prime-clarification account, which, unlike center-surround theory, correctly predicted negative repetition priming effects.

Abstract: Backward priming was examined at 150- and 500-msec prime-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) using visually presented primes and targets in lexical decision and pronunciation tasks. Two kinds of backward relations were used: compound items for which targets and primes formed a word in the backward direction (e.g., prime: HOP; target:bell), and noncompound items for which targets and primes did not form a word but were associatively related in the backward but not the forward direction (e.g., prime: BABY; target:stork). Results showed that backward priming effects were equivalent for compounds and noncompounds. However, for lexical decisions, backward priming occurred at both SOAs, whereas for pronunciation, it occurred only at the 150-msec SOA. We discuss how this SOA-dissociated backward priming effect in lexical decision and pronunciation tasks poses a serious challenge for all theories of semantic priming.

Abstract: Subjects named target words that followed a masked prime word of 33-msec (Experiments 1A and 1B) or 200-msec (Experiment 2) duration. The target word was either presented alone or accompanied by an interleaved distractor word. Targets presented alone were named more quickly following an identical prime than following an unrelated prime (repetition priming). In Experiment 1A, targets with distractors were named more slowly following an identical prime than following an unrelated prime (negative priming), replicating Milliken, Joordens, Merikle, and Seiffert (Psychological Review, 1998). In Experiments 1B and 2, repetition priming was reduced, although not reversed, for targets with distractors. The results of all three experiments are opposite to the usual finding of enhanced priming for perceptually degraded targets and suggest that response conflict engages retrospective mechanisms that counteract the facilitatory effects of priming.

Abstract: In a lexical decision task with two primes and a target, the target was preceded 300 msec by the second prime (P2) which in turn was preceded by a brief forward and backward masked first prime (P1). When P1 and P2 were unrelated, reaction times were faster when the target was related to P2 (e.g.,wave SALT ... pepper) than when the target was unrelated to P2 (and P1—e.g.,wave LOAN ... pepper). However, this semantic priming effect was reduced to statistically nonsignificant levels when P1 and P2 were repetitions of the same word. That is, priming did not occur forsalt SALT ... pepper relative toloan LOAN ... pepper. This reduction in priming was observed whether P2 and the target were strongly or weakly related. These findings raise problems for current accounts of semantic priming.

Abstract: Horizontal and vertical strings were presented in a "crosswords" format within left or right visual fields. Distractor strings were varied to examine the extent to which prelexical, orthographic-phonological, and semantic codes are activated for words not focally attended. The results supported 2 predictions of the pathway strength model of attentional modulation (J. D. Cohen, K. Dunbar, & J. L. McClelland, 1990). First, distractor influences were greater when participants attended to the weaker (i.e., vertical) item and ignored the stronger (i.e., horizontal) string, than vice versa. Second, distractors similar to the target facilitated, whereas dissimilar distractors interfered with, pronunciation responses. It is concluded that spatial attention can modulate word recognition processes, and that some interesting questions emerge when one abandons the assumptions of serial, noninteractive word recognition processes.

Abstract: Previous results (Burgess & Simpson, 1988a) have suggested that subordinate meanings are activated in the right hemisphere only when they have been inhibited in the left hemisphere. Such findings are consistent with a homotopic callosal inhibition view of hemispheric interaction (Cook, 1986). The current study employed prime-target stimulus onset asynchronies intermediate to those used by Burgess and Simpson and obtained equivalent priming of subordinate meanings over visual fields. These data rule out homotopic callosal inhibition as the mechanism responsible for initial activation of subordinate meanings in the right hemisphere and challenge homotopic inhibition as a general mechanism of interhemispheric interaction.

Abstract: Examined the relationship between defensiveness (DF) and cynical hostility (CH), and their effect on cardiovascular reactivity during a stressful mental arithmetic task. 74 undergraduate males (mean age 19.2 yrs) were administered measures of social desirability and CH. Systolic and diastolic BPs and heart rates were measured while Ss subtracted serial sevens, starting with the number 2,194. Results indicate that the correlations of systolic BP and heart reactivity with the social desirability measures were moderated by CH measures, with significant associations found only among high CH Ss. Among Ss with coronary heart disease, the most severe bouts of myocardial ischemia were linked to Ss with a profile of high CH and social desirability. It is concluded that there is a relationship between cynical hostility, DF, cardiovascular reactivity, and stress related coronary disease.