Electrophysiological activation by masked primes: Independence of prime-related and target-related activities

• Authors: Werner Klotz , Manfred Heumann , Ulrich Ansorge , Odmar Neumann

Abstracts

EN

Visual stimuli that are made invisible by metacontrast masking (primes) have a marked influence on behavioral and psychophysiological measures such as reaction time (RT) and the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). 4 experiments are reported that shed light on the effects that masked primes have on the LRP. Participants had a go-nogo task in which the prime was associated with 1 of 2 responses even if the target required participants to refrain from responding. To analyze the electrophysiological responses, we computed the LRP and applied an averaging method separating the activation due to the prime and the target. The results demonstrated that (a) masked primes activate responses even in a nogo situation, (b) this prime-related activation is independent of masking, (c) and is also independent of whether prime and target require the same responses (congruent condition) or different responses (incongruent condition).

Keywords

EN

metacontrast; EEG recording; LRP; Go/Nogo

• Publisher: Wyższa Szkoła Finansów i Zarządzania w Warszawie
• Journal: Advances in Cognitive Psychology
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 449-465

Contributors

author

Werner Klotz

• Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

author

Manfred Heumann

• Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

author

Ulrich Ansorge

• Department of Cognitive Science and Department of Psychology, University of Osnabrueck, Osnabrueck, Germany

author

Odmar Neumann

• Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10053-008-0008-1