title: Response readiness modulates the development of association-based automaticity in masked priming.
abstract: The current study investigated the role of the automatization of stimulus and response (S-R) associations and response readiness in triggering the motor activation for masked primes in two experiments. The automatization of associations was manipulated by employing different types of stimuli, and response readiness was manipulated by varying the relative frequency of Go trials in a modified Go/No-Go task. Compatibility (compatible and incompatible), stimulus type (arrows and parallel lines), and test session (Sessions 1, 2, and 3) were manipulated in a high response-readiness condition (Experiment 1) and in a low response-readiness condition (Experiment 2). Negative compatibility effects (NCEs) occurred regardless of session and experiment in the arrow stimuli condition. However, in the parallel-line stimuli condition, no significant compatibility effect (CE) appeared regardless of the experiment in Sessions 1 and 2, whereas a significant NCE appeared in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2 in Session 3. These results are consistent with the claim that motor activation can only occur if the association between specific stimuli and specific responses has been automatized by previous practice, and response readiness can modulate the development of automaticity, but this modulation will have a minimal effect once the association is automatized. The findings also provide experimental evidence for the assumption that the formation of association-based automaticity could be modulated by top-down control (e.g., response readiness).
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China.|Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Xi'an, 710062, China.
authors.forename: Yongchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China. wyonghui@snnu.edu.cn.|Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Xi'an, 710062, China. wyonghui@snnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yonghui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Public Management, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China.|Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Xi'an, 710062, China.
authors.forename: Meilin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China.|Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Xi'an, 710062, China.
authors.forename: Yanyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China.|Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Xi'an, 710062, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China.|Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Xi'an, 710062, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D060865:Repetition Priming / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Automatization of associations; Motor activation; Negative compatibility effect; Response readiness