The negative priming effect as an inhibitory phenomenon

Abstract

This study examined two hypotheses on the negative priming effect. Hypothesis 1: If a negative priming effect is due to response inhibition toward a distractor stimulus, it should occur in a condition where the response to a distractor stimulus is directly inhibited. Hypothesis 2: If response inhibition toward a distractor stimulus by itself is strong enough to produce a negative priming effect, it should occur even in earlier trials. Results showed that the negative priming effect did occur when the response to a distractor stimulus was directly inhibited thus confirming Hypothesis I. As for Hypothesis 2, the negative priming effect did not occur with a few number of trials, suggesting that response inhibition toward a distractor stimulus becomes strong over the course of trials.