An investigation of negative priming the role of cognitive inhibition /

by 1963- Frudd, Kelly

Negative priming refers to the slowed response to a stimulus that was previously ignored. One of the potential problems with the negative priming literature is the inconsistency of when and how much negative priming is obtained from a variety of experimental paradigms examined in different laboratories. Of particular interest in this study, was how the magnitude of negative priming may change according to the exact timing of the parameters of the experiment. This study investigated the negative priming effect across four stimulus onset asynchronies and two interference conditions. One hundred and six university undergraduate students participated in a lexical decision task. Participants were presented with a series of negative priming and control prime-probe trial pairs. Reaction times and error rates were recorded and analyzed. The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire was given to participants and compared with performance measures on the lexical decision task. Experimental results were discussed within the framework of negative priming literature.