Unconscious, stimulus-dependent priming and conscious, percept-dependent priming with chromatic stimuli

Percept Psychophys. 2007 May;69(4):550-7. doi: 10.3758/bf03193912.

Abstract

Using metacontrast masking to suppress the conscious registration of a prime stimulus, Breitmeyer, Ro, and Singhal (2004) showed that color priming produced by a masked prime disk occurs at unconscious stimulus-dependent rather than at percept-dependent levels of visual processing. The current set of experiments compares this type of unconscious stimulus-dependent priming to conscious priming produced by a prime that, in two separate ways, is rendered visible and thus activates percept-dependent visual processes. The results indicate that while the masked prime again acts at a stimulus-dependent level of processing, the unmasked, visible primes additionally act at a later percept-dependent level of processing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Color Perception*
  • Consciousness*
  • Humans
  • Perception*
  • Perceptual Masking
  • Reaction Time
  • Unconscious, Psychology*