Negative semantic priming from consciously vs. unconsciously perceived single words

Résumé 0

" The present research explores whether obtaining semantic negative primingfrom a single ignored word depends on whether that word is eitherconsciously or unconsciously perceived. On each trial a prime word wasbriefly displayed and followed either immediately or after a delay by apattern mask. The mask offset was followed by a probe display containing asingle target word that participants were required to either categorize oridentify. Participants were instructed to attend to the target while ignoringthe prime word. On half of trials the prime-target pairs were highlyassociated words belonging to the same semantic category, whereas on theremaining half they belonged to different semantic categories. A differentialpriming pattern as a function of the masking condition was found: Semanticnegative priming when the mask presentation was delayed, and positivepriming when the prime word was immediately masked, thus preventing itsconscious identification. These results suggest that masking type, whichsupposedly affects prime awareness, would be a critical factor to obtainnegative semantic priming from single words. They also provide evidencethat perceiving a stimulus with or without awareness can lead toqualitatively different behavioral consequences, which reflect thecontribution of controlled and automatic components, respectively."