Abstract
It is well established that requiring a person to respond to a recently ignored object in a visual selection task leads to slower responding (i.e., negative priming). In the present experiment, subjects identified target letters flanked by incompatible distractor letters on prime and probe displays. Prime display distractors appeared as the target letter on one third of subsequent probe displays. We manipulated stimulus strength by means of intensity contrast between letter displays and their background. Displays were presented with either high contrast (white against a black background) or low contrast (dark gray against a black background). The important finding was that negative priming was maximal when prime and probe displays shared the same intensity contrast. These results suggest that greater similarity between prime and probe displays results in improved retrieval of prime display information. The results provide strong support for an episodic retrieval account of negative priming.
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This research was supported by a grant from the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex. We are grateful to Alastair Neill for help with computer programming and to Ian Smith for help with data collection. We would also like to thank Tram Neill and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.
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Fox, E., De Fockert, J.W. Negative priming depends on prime-probe similarity: Evidence for episodic retrieval. Psychon Bull Rev 5, 107–113 (1998). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209464
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209464