Negative priming between pictures and words in a selective attention task: evidence for semantic processing of ignored stimuli

An examination of the processing of ignored pictures & words when attention was directed to a different picture or word. Previous work (Tipper, Steven P., "The Negative Priming Effect: Inhibitory Priming by Ignored Objects," The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1985, 37A, 571-590) demonstrated that the priming effect of an ignored picture on a subsequent categorically related picture is inhibitory. This effect was termed negative priming. Tipper concluded that ignored pictures achieved abstract categorical levels of internal representation, & that these representations were inhibited during selection of a simultaneously presented picture. This conclusion, however, was premature. Observation of the figures used by Tipper suggests that objects within a category have greater structural similarity than do objects in different categories. The negative priming effect could therefore be at a structural level of representation. The present study (N = 56) examined priming across symbolic domains (pictures & words) where there was no structural relationship between objects. Negative priming was again observed & was equivalent to the negative priming observed within symbolic domain. These data suggest that ignored drawings & words do achieve abstract categorical levels of representation, & that the mechanisms underlying negative priming operate at, or beyond, this level. 1 Table, 3 Figures, 32 References. Modified HA