Unconscious word-stem completion priming in a mirror-masking paradigm

The aim of this study was to investigate unconscious priming by the use of a spatial mirror-masking paradigm. Words and nonwords with no under-length letters are mirrored at their horizontal axis. The results are figures of geometric-like forms that contain letters in their upper part. In the three...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Consciousness and cognition 2005-06, Vol.14 (2), p.257-277
Main Authors: Perrig, Walter J., Eckstein, Doris
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Language
Language Tests
Male
Mirror masking
Miscellaneous
Perceptual Masking
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Space Perception
Unconscious (Psychology)
Unconscious priming
Vocabulary
Word-stem completion
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Summary:The aim of this study was to investigate unconscious priming by the use of a spatial mirror-masking paradigm. Words and nonwords with no under-length letters are mirrored at their horizontal axis. The results are figures of geometric-like forms that contain letters in their upper part. In the three experiments reported in this study, a priming procedure used such mirrored words and nonwords as primes. Participants were ignorant of the nature of the construction of the stimuli. Perceptual reports of the participants revealed that they did not realize that words were hidden in the primes. Nevertheless, they showed priming in all three experiments. Priming effects were replicated with prime–target SOAs of between 1 and 3 s. Functional dissociations were found between ignorant and informed participants. Informed groups showed perceptual and semantic priming, while ignorant groups showed only perceptual priming.
ISSN:1053-8100
1090-2376
DOI:10.1016/j.concog.2004.07.008