Intentions determine the effect of invisible metacontrast-masked primes: evidence for top-down contingencies in a peripheral cuing task

J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2005 Aug;31(4):762-77. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.31.4.762.

Abstract

In 5 experiments, the authors tested whether the processing of nonconscious spatial stimulus information depends on a prior intention. This test was conducted with the metacontrast dissociation paradigm. Experiment 1 demonstrated that masked primes that could not be discriminated above chance level affected responses to the visible stimuli that masked them. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that this effect was abolished when the task instruction was changed in such a way that the primes ceased to be task relevant. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that a prime's effect depended on whether it was associated with the same response as the target or with an opposite response.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Attention
  • Cues*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intention*
  • Male
  • Perceptual Masking*
  • Reaction Time