Mechanisms of source confusion and discounting in short-term priming: 1. Effects of prime duration and prime recognition.
Huber, Shriffrin, Lyle, and Ruys (2001) measured short-term repetition priming effects in perceptual identification with two-alternative forced-choice testing. There was a preference to choose repeated words following passive viewing of primes and a preference against choosing repeated words following active responding to primes. In this present study, we explored conditions of prime processing that produce this pattern of results. Experiment 1 revealed that increased prime duration under passive viewing instructions produces the active priming pattern. Experiment 2 assessed memory for primes: With poor recognition of primes, there was a strong preference for repeated words; however, with good recognition of primes, this preference was eliminated. These results are modeled by a computational theory of optimal decision making, responding optimally with unknown sources of evidence (ROUSE). In ROUSE, a preference for repeated words results from source confusion between primes and choice words. A reversal in the direction of preference arises from the discounting of words known to have also appeared as primes.
Huber
David E
DE
Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0345, USA. dhuber@psych.colorado.edu
Shiffrin
Richard M
RM
Quach
Raushanna
R
Lyle
Keith B
KB
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation