Conditions Affecting the Occurrence of Negative Priming Effect

Abstract

As it has been demonstrated in a series of studies, the negative priming effect (NP) that shows itself in slowdown of the reaction to a target stimulus could be observed after presenting an identical or related prime. The same conditions however are typical for the manifestation of the positive priming effect. The NP manifestation depends on a number of factors, and many of those which are necessary for the NP occurrence in one circumstance lose their value in another. We propose that the number of contradictions could be explained if we assume that independent processes lie in the basis of the negative and positive priming and jointly affect the reaction time. Refs 43.