Abstract
Event-related potential correlates of positive priming (PP) and negative priming (NP) were investigated in order to further elucidate the cognitive mechanisms involved. Thirty-six participants performed both an identity- and a location-based priming task. Repeating the target stimulus/location from the immediately preceding display produced behavioral PP. With localization, but not with identification, behavioral NP was observed when the target stimulus/location matched the preceding distractor stimulus/location. Smaller P300 amplitude accompanied identity-based PP, suggesting persisting target-specific activation. The lateralized readiness potential, an index of correct/incorrect response activation, indicated persisting central motor activation as another source of PP. Both location-based PP and NP were accompanied by reduced P1/N1 and P300 amplitudes, pointing to the involvement of inhibition of return in location-based priming. The results support the view that multiple brain processes underlie behavioral priming.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Christie, J., &Klein, R. M. (2001). Negative priming for spatial location?Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology,55, 24–38.
Coles, M. G. H. (1989). Modern mind—brain reading: Psychophysiology, physiology, and cognition.Psychophysiology,26, 251–269.
Connelly, S. L., &Hasher, L. (1993). Aging and the inhibition of spatial location.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,19, 1238–1250.
Donchin, E., &Coles, M. G. H. (1988). Is the P300 component a manifestation of context updating?Behavioral & Brain Sciences,11, 357–374.
Driver, J., &Tipper, S. P. (1989). On the nonselectivity of “selective” seeing: Contrasts between interference and priming in selective attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,15, 304–314.
Eason, R., Harter, M., &White, C. (1969). Effects of attention and arousal on visually evoked cortical potentials and reaction time in man.Physiology & Behavior,4, 283–289.
Eimer, M. (1994). An ERP study on visual spatial priming with peripheral onsets.Psychophysiology,31, 154–163.
Eimer, M. (1995). Event-related potential correlates of transient attention shifts to color and location.Biological Psychology,41, 167–182.
Eimer, M., &Schröger, E. (1995). The location of preceding stimuli affects selective processing in a sustained attention situation.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,94, 115–128.
Eriksen, B. A., &Eriksen, C. W. (1974). Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task.Perception & Psychophysics,16, 143–149.
Fox, E. (1994). Interference and negative priming from ignored distractors: The role of selection difficulty.Perception & Psychophysics,56, 565–574.
Fox, E. (1995a). Negative priming from ignored distractors in visual selection: A review.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,2, 145–173.
Fox, E. (1995b). Pre-cuing target location reduces interference but not negative priming from visual distractors.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,48A, 26–40.
Gibbons, H., &Rammsayer, T. H. (2004). Differential effects of prime— probe duration on positive and negative location priming: Evidence for opponent facilitatory and inhibitory influences in priming tasks.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,57A, 61–86.
Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., &Donchin, E. (1983). A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifact.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,55, 468–484.
Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., Sirevaag, E. J., Eriksen, C. W., &Donchin, E. (1988). Pre- and poststimulus activation of response channels: A psychophysiological analysis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,14, 331–344.
Henson, R. N. (2003). Neuroimaging studies of priming.Progress in Neurobiology,70, 53–81.
Hillyard, S. A., Luck, S. J., &Mangun, G. R. (1994). The cuing of attention to visual field locations: Analysis with ERP recordings. In H.-J. Heinze, T. F. Münte, & G. R. Mangun (Eds.),Cognitive electrophysiology (pp. 1–25). Boston: Birkhäuser.
Houghton, G., &Tipper, S. P. (1994). A model of inhibitory mechanisms in selective attention. In D. Dagenbach & T. H. Carr (Eds.),Inhibitory processes in attention, memory, and language (pp. 53–112). San Diego: Academic Press.
Huber, D. E., Shiffrin, R. M., Lyle, K. B., &Ruys, K. I. (2001). Perception and preference in short-term word priming.Psychological Review,108, 149–182.
Jasper, H. H. (1958). The ten—twenty electrode system of the International Federation.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,20, 371–375.
Jentzsch, I., &Sommer, W. (2002). Functional localization and mechanisms of sequential effects in serial reaction time tasks.Perception & Psychophysics,64, 1169–1188.
Johnson, R. (1986). A triarchic model of P300 amplitude.Psychophysiology,23, 367–384.
Kiefer, M. (2002). The N400 is modulated by unconsciously perceived masked words: Further evidence for an automatic spreading activation account of N400 priming effects.Cognitive Brain Research,13, 27–39.
Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization.Psychological Review,95, 492–527.
Luck, S. J., Heinze, H. J., Mangun, G. R., &Hillyard, S. A. (1990). Visual event-related potentials index focused attention within bilateral stimulus arrays: II. Functional dissociation of P1 and N1 components.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,75, 528–542.
MacDonald, P. A., &Joordens, S. (2000). Investigating a memorybased account of negative priming: Support for selection—feature mismatch.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,26, 1478–1496.
Mangun, G. R. (1994). Orienting attention in the visual fields: An electrophysiological analysis. In H.-J. Heinze, T. F. Münte, & G. R. Mangun (Eds.),Cognitive electrophysiology (pp. 81–101). Boston: Birkhäuser.
Mangun, G. R., &Hillyard, S. A. (1988). Spatial gradients of visual attention: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,70, 417–428.
Mangun, G. R., Hillyard, S. A., &Luck, S. J. (1993). Electrocortical substrates of visual selective attention. In D. E. Meyer & S. Kornblum (Eds.),Attention and performance XIV: Synergies in experimental psychology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive neuroscience (pp. 219–243). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
May, C. P., Kane, M. J., &Hasher, L. (1995). Determinants of negative priming.Psychological Bulletin,118, 35–54.
McCarthy, G., &Wood, C. C. (1985). Scalp distributions of eventrelated potentials: An ambiguity associated with analysis of variance models.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,62, 203–208.
McDonald, J. J., Ward, L. M., &Kiehl, K. A. (1999). An event-related brain potential study of inhibition of return.Perception & Psychophysics,61, 1411–1423.
Miller, J., Patterson, T., &Ulrich, R. (1998). Jackknife-based method for measuring LRP onset latency differences.Psychophysiology,35, 99–115.
Milliken, B., Joordens, S., Merikle, P. M., &Seiffert, A. E. (1998). Selective attention: A reevaluation of the implications of negative priming.Psychological Review,105, 203–229.
Milliken, B., Tipper, S. P., Houghton, G., &Lupiáñez, J. (2000). Attending, ignoring, and repetition: On the relation between negative priming and inhibition of return.Perception & Psychophysics,62, 1280–1296.
Milliken, B., Tipper, S. P., &Weaver, B. (1994). Negative priming in a spatial localization task: Feature mismatching and inhibition of distractor location.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,20, 624–646.
Morton, J. (1969). Interaction of information in word recognition.Psychological Review,76, 165–178.
Morton, J. (1979). Facilitation in word recognition: Experiments causing change in the logogen model. In P. A. Kolers, M. E. Wrolstad, & H. Bouma (Eds.),Processing visible language (Vol. 1, pp. 259–268). New York: Plenum.
Mulder, G., Wijers, A. A., Brookhuis, K. A., Smid, H. G. O. M., &Mulder, L. J. M. (1994). Selective visual attention: Selective cuing, cognitive processing, and response processing. In H.-J. Heinze, T. F. Münte, & G. R. Mangun (Eds.),Cognitive electrophysiology (pp. 26–80). Boston: Birkhäuser.
Neill, W. T., &Mathis, K. M. (1998). Transfer-inappropriate processing: Negative priming and related phenomena. In D. L. Medin (Ed.),Psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 38, pp. 1–44). San Diego: Academic Press.
Neill, W. T., &Valdes, L. A. (1992). The persistence of negative prim186 ing: Steady-state or decay?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,18, 565–576.
Neill, W. T., Valdes, L. A., Terry, K. M., &Gorfein, D. S. (1992). Persistence of negative priming: II. Evidence for episodic trace retrieval.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,18, 993–1000.
Park, J., &Kanwisher, N. (1994). Negative priming for spatial locations: Identity mismatching, not distractor inhibition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,20, 613–623.
Posner, M. I., &Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bowhuis (Eds.),Attention and performance X: Control of language processes (pp. 531–556). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Pratt, J., &Abrams, R. A. (1999). Inhibition of return in discrimination tasks.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,25, 229–242.
Ratcliff, R., &McKoon, G. (1997). A counter model for implicit priming in word identification.Psychological Review,104, 319–343.
Rossell, S. L., Price, C. J., &Nobre, A. C. (2003). The anatomy and time course of semantic priming investigated by fMRI and ERPs.Neuropsychologia,41, 550–564.
Rugg, M. D. (1995). ERP studies of memory. In M. D. Rugg & M. G. H. Coles (Eds.),Electrophysiology of mind: Event-related brain potentials and cognition (pp. 133–170). London: Oxford University Press.
Schooler, L. J., Shiffrin, R. M., &Raaijmakers, J. G. W. (2001). A Bayesian model for implicit effects in perceptual identification.Psychological Review,108, 257–272.
Shapiro, K. L., &Loughlin, C. (1993). The locus of inhibition in the priming of static objects: Object token versus location.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,19, 352–363.
Smid, H. G. O. M., Fiedler, R., &Heinze, H.-J. (2000). An electrophysiological study of the insertion of overt response choice.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,26, 1053–1071.
Stadler, M. A., &Hogan, M. E. (1996). Varieties of positive and negative priming.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,3, 87–90.
Tenpenny, P. L. (1995). Abstractionist versus episodic theories of repetition priming and word identification.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,2, 339–363.
Tipper, S. P. (1985). The negative priming effect: Inhibitory priming by ignored objects.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,37A, 571–590.
Tipper, S. P., Brehaut, J. C., &Driver, J. (1990). Selection of moving and static objects for the control of spatially directed action.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,16, 492–504.
Tipper, S. P., &Cranston, M. (1985). Selective attention and priming: Inhibitory and facilitatory effects of ignored primes.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,37A, 591–611.
Valle-Inclan, F. (1996). The locus of interference in the Simon effect: An ERP study.Biological Psychology,43, 147–162.
Wood, T. J., &Milliken, B. (1998). Negative priming without ignoring.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,5, 470–475.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gibbons, H., Rammsayer, T.H. & Stahl, J. Multiple sources of positive- and negative-priming effects: An event-related potential study. Memory & Cognition 34, 172–186 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193396
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193396