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EN
In spite of the excellent temporal resolution of event-related EEG potentials (ERPs), the overlapping potentials evoked by masked and masking stimuli are hard to disentangle. However, when both masked and masking stimuli consist of pairs of relevant and irrelevant stimuli, one left and one right from fixation, with the side of the relevant element varying between pairs, effects of masked and masking stimuli can be distinguished by means of the contralateral preponderance of the potentials evoked by the relevant elements, because the relevant elements may independently change sides in masked and masking stimuli. Based on a reanalysis of data from which only selected contralateral-ipsilateral effects had been previously published, the present contribution will provide a more complete picture of the ERP effects in a masked-priming task. Indeed, effects evoked by masked primes and masking targets heavily overlapped in conventional ERPs and could be disentangled to a certain degree by contralateral-ipsilateral differences. Their major component, the N2pc, is interpreted as indicating preferential processing of stimuli matching the target template, which process can neither be identified with conscious perception nor with shifts of spatial attention. The measurements showed that the triggering of response preparation by the masked stimuli did not depend on their discriminability, and their priming effects on the processing of the following target stimuli were qualitatively different for stimulus identification and for response preparation. These results provide another piece of evidence for the independence of motor-related and perception-related effects of masked stimuli.
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What determines the direction of subliminal priming

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EN
Masked stimuli (primes) can affect the preparation of a motor response to subsequently presented target stimuli. Reactions to the target can be facilitated (straight priming) or inhibited (inverse priming) when preceded by a compatible prime (calling for the same response) and also when preceded by an incompatible prime. Several hypotheses are currently under debate. These are the self-inhibition (SI) hypothesis, the object-updating (OU) hypothesis, and mask-triggered inhibition (MTI) hypothesis. All assume that the initial activation of the motor response is elicited by the prime according to its identity. This activation inevitably leads to straight priming in some cases and the mechanisms involved are undisputed. The hypotheses differ, however, as to why inverse priming occurs. The self-inhibition (SI) hypothesis assumes that the motor activation elicited by a prime is automatically followed by an inhibition phase, leading to inverse priming if three conditions are fulfilled: perceptual evidence for the prime has to be sufficiently strong, it has to be immediately removed by the mask, and the delay between the prime and target has to be long enough for inhibition to become effective. The object-updating (OU) hypothesis assumes that inverse priming is triggered by the mask, provided that it contains features calling for the alternative response (i.e. the one contrasting with the response induced by the prime). The MTI hypothesis assumes that the inhibitory phase is triggered by each successive stimulus which does not support the perceptual hypothesis provided by the prime. Based mostly on our own experiments, we argue that (1) attempts to manipulate the three factors required by the SI hypothesis imply changes of other variables and that (2) indeed, other variables seem to affect priming: prime-mask perceptual interaction and temporal position of the mask. These observations are in favor of the MTI hypothesis. A limiting factor for all three hypotheses is that inverse priming is larger for arrows than for other shapes, making it doubtful as to what extent the majority of studies on inverse priming, due to their use of arrows, can be generalized to other stimuli.
EN
Psychological and neuroscience approaches have promoted much progress in elucidating the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie phenomenal visual awareness during the last decades. In this article, we provide an overview of the latest research investigating important phenomena in conscious and unconscious vision. We identify general principles to characterize conscious and unconscious visual perception, which may serve as important building blocks for a unified model to explain the plethora of findings. We argue that in particular the integration of principles from both conscious and unconscious vision is advantageous and provides critical constraints for developing adequate theoretical models. Based on the principles identified in our review, we outline essential components of a unified model of conscious and unconscious visual perception. We propose thatawarenessrefers to consolidated visual representations, which are accessible to the entire brain and therefore globally available. However,visual awarenessnot only depends on consolidation within the visual system, but is additionally the result of a post-sensory gating process, which is mediated by higher-level cognitive control mechanisms. We further propose that amplification of visual representations by attentional sensitization is not exclusive to the domain of conscious perception, but also applies to visual stimuli, which remain unconscious. Conscious and unconscious processing modes are highly interdependent with influences in both directions. We therefore argue that exactly this interdependence renders a unified model of conscious and unconscious visual perception valuable. Computational modeling jointly with focused experimental research could lead to a better understanding of the plethora of empirical phenomena in consciousness research.
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