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Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research 5/2011

01-09-2011 | Original Article

No conflict control in the absence of awareness

Auteurs: Ulrich Ansorge, Isabella Fuchs, Shah Khalid, Wilfried Kunde

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 5/2011

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Abstract

Introduction

In the present study we tested whether control over the impact of potentially conflicting information depends on awareness of that conflicting information.

Method and Results

In Experiment 1 participants performed a response-priming task, with either masked or unmasked primes. Prime awareness was assessed on a trial-by-trial basis. A typical conflict control pattern, with reduced priming effects following incongruent rather than congruent primes in the preceding trial was found. Yet, this pattern was obtained only when the prime information was visible and not when it was invisible. With invisible primes the effect did not occur, even when participants accidently judged the prime information correctly. Importantly, this confinement of the conflict adaptation effect to unmasked primes occurred despite identical prime processing times with and without masking−a variable that was confounded with prime awareness in previous studies. In Experiment 2, a similar data pattern was found for judgment times regarding the congruency of prime-target pairs.

Conclusion

Altogether, the results support the conclusion that awareness of visual primes is important for controlling conflict in visuo-motor processing.
Voetnoten
1
A similar ANOVA of the incorrect responses led to only significant main effects of congruence, F(1, 44) = 19.11, p < .01, with faster congruent RTs (752 ms) than incongruent RTs (767 ms), and of correspondence, F(1, 44) = 104.33, p < .01, with faster corresponding RTs (702 ms) than non-corresponding RTs (817 ms). The interactions between congruence and preceding congruence, F(1, 44) = 2.71, p = .10, and between masking, congruence, and preceding congruence failed, F(1, 44) < 1.00, suggesting that even in the aware conditions, conflict control depended on the participants’ awareness of conflict in the preceding trial.
 
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Metagegevens
Titel
No conflict control in the absence of awareness
Auteurs
Ulrich Ansorge
Isabella Fuchs
Shah Khalid
Wilfried Kunde
Publicatiedatum
01-09-2011
Uitgeverij
Springer-Verlag
Gepubliceerd in
Psychological Research / Uitgave 5/2011
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-010-0313-4

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