| This paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, Illinois on May 5, 2000. |
| Title: The Role of Spatial Attention in Unconscious Priming. Authors: Xavier Sonnerat and Mark R. Klinger, University of Alabama. Problem: This study tested whether spatial attention is important for the automatic processing of word meaning. We used a cuing paradigm to manipulate the location of participants' attention. Additionally, Greenwald, Draine, and Abrams' (1996) unconscious priming methodology was used. However, primes and targets were randomly presented to either the left or right of fixation. A cue that preceded the prime predicted target location and indicated where participants should attend. Procedure: Eighteen participants completed a priming task (indirect measure of perception), followed by a prime perceptibility task (direct measure of perception). Participants were instructed to attend to a cue that predicted the target location. A masked prime was presented before the target on either the same or the opposite side as the cue. Participants' task was to judge whether targets were positive or negative in affect; a response window procedure assured fast responses. Primes and targets were affectively congruent on half of the trials. Priming was measured as a higher accuracy on congruent trials. The prime perceptibility task was used to verify the non-ability of participants to consciously perceive the primes. Results: Table 1 shows the mean percentage correct for congruent and uncongruent prime-target pairs. As can be seen, large priming effects were observed when the prime was presented in the cued location [F (1, 17)=11.04, p<.004]. Priming effects were also observed when the prime was presented in the non-cued location, but they were smaller [F (1, 17)=6.32, p<.022]. Additionally, priming in the cued location was significantly greater than in the non-cued location [F (1, 17)=7.43, p<.014]. Finally, participants were, on average poor at judging the affect of primes (53% correct on average where 50%=chance) suggesting that participants had minimal conscious awareness of the primes. Discussion: These results contribute to the understanding that, even though attention for identity is not required to process word meaning, spatial attention is important to unconscious perception. If spatial attention is allocated to the location of primes, then their meaning is activated. If spatial attention is not allocated, then their meaning is only minimally activated. References: Greenwald, A. G., Draine, S. C., & Abrams, R. L. (1996). Three cognitive markers of unconscious semantic activation. Science, 273, 1699-1702. Table 1:Mean percentage correct for congruent and incongruent prime-target pairs, and amount of priming. Prime-Target Pairs Cue/Prime Side Congruent Incongruent Priming Same .84 .75 +.09 Opposite .82 .79 +.03 |
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