Repetition priming reveals sustained facilitation and transient inhibition in reaction time.
Reaction time (RT) in a detection or a location discrimination task increases when a target is repeatedly presented at the same location (inhibition), whereas RT decreases in feature (color or orientation) discrimination tasks (facilitation; Y. Tanaka & S. Shimojo, 1996a). Here, the time course of inhibition and facilitation was examined, using a repetition priming paradigm. Results indicate that inhibition occurred only in the immediately successive trial, whereas facilitation accumulated over several trials with location repetition. Moreover, inhibition and facilitation occurred in a task-relevant manner: Detection-location discrimination tasks produced transient RT increase, whereas feature discrimination tasks produced cumulative RT decrease. These results suggest a functional dissociation between spatial orienting and feature analysis, as well as top-down modulations by tasks leading to different types of visual memory.
Tanaka
Y
Y
Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. yasuto@iyar.weizmann.ac.il
Shimojo
S
S
D000328:Adult; D003118:Color Perception; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011930:Reaction Time; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013028:Space Perception