Prior research indicates that cueing or priming an individual prior to exposing them to a basic stimulus, either visual or verbal, will direct their perception and attention toward specific aspects of that stimulus. Furthermore, it suggests that those aspects of the stimulus that are attended or perceived may be related by the extent to which they afford the resolution of a problem, need, or state invoked by the cued phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to determine whether similar results would be found using content of a greater scale. In other words, the purpose was to determine whether the same cueing and priming results found using words and phrases would apply using entire instructional modules. Specifically, this study attempted to determine whether cuing individuals to an expected outcome performance prior to instruction would cause them to focus on those parts of the instruction needed to succeed on the outcome performance. It was hypothesized that prior cuing would result in superior performance on a transfer problem. Similarly, it was also hypothesized that, since the learner's attention would be directed toward specific parts of the instruction to the neglect of others, overall memory retention would be diminished for learners that were cued. To test these hypotheses, an experimental design was used with two overall groups: one receiving prior exposure to a transfer problem and one not. In addition, in order to avoid the possibility that any results could be generalized only to the subject matter being taught, two different subject domains were used: statistics and biology. Therefore, 115 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) a statistics group receiving prior exposure to a transfer problem; (c) a statistics group without prior exposure to a transfer problem; (b) a biology group receiving prior exposure to a transfer problem; (d) a biology group without prior exposure to a transfer problem. Following instruction, each group received the transfer problem and recall test appropriate for the subject area covered during their instruction (statistics or biology). The resulting data was analyzed using two ANOVAs, one for retention and one for transfer. Neither ANOVA yielded significant results. Hence, the results reported in this study do not support either hypothesis. / Ph. D.

O objetivo geral da presente tese foi investigar possíveis efeitos da atenção dividida da memória implícita perceptual não-verbal e verbal, e conceitual na fase de recuperação. Foram realizados dois estudos teóricos e um empírico. O primeiro estudo teórico teve o objetivo de revisar sistematicamente pesquisas que avaliaram o papel da atenção em testes de memória implícita (priming de repetição) com o paradigma da atenção dividida, na fase de codificação ou de recuperação. Foram selecionados 31 artigos empíricos com base em critérios pré-estabelecidos. Concluiu-se que os primings, perceptual e conceitual, são afetados pela atenção dividida na codificação quando a tarefa secundária demanda mais atenção, isto é, quando exige resposta frequente e é apresentada sincrônica ao estímulo alvo de memória. Poucos estudos foram realizados na fase de recuperação e indicaram imunidade desses primings à atenção dividida. O segundo estudo buscou apresentar e discutir aspectos metodológicos relevantes à elaboração de experimentos usando priming de repetição, com ênfase na seleção de materiais (software, listas de estímulos normatizados para o Brasil e relevância de fatores psicolinguísticos) e manipulação de variáveis (calibração pré-experimental, instruções e tempo de exposição dos estímulos, por exemplo). Recomendações para pesquisas futuras foram apresentadas. O artigo empírico foi o terceiro estudo e incluiu três experimentos. Os experimentos exploraram o papel da atenção na memória implícita perceptual não verbal e expandiram os resultados com testes perceptual e conceitual verbal, avaliando os efeitos da atenção dividida em novas condições experimentais. O experimento 1 utilizou o teste implícito de completar fragmentos de figuras com uma tarefa secundária de julgamento de tons; o experimento 2 utilizou completar radical de palavra e o experimento 3, produção de exemplar da categoria, ambos com uma tarefa secundária de julgamento de sequências de consoantes. Os resultados evidenciaram que a memória implícita foi afetada pela atenção dividida nos testes de completar fragmentos de figura e produção de exemplar da categoria, enquanto completar radical de palavra foi imune aos efeitos da divisão da atenção. Coletivamente, os resultados indicaram que, sob algumas circunstâncias, memória implícita perceptual exige recursos atencionais na recuperação. Recursos atencionais são exigidos pela memória implícita conceitual, tal como hipotetizado na literatura. / The general aim of this thesis was to investigate the role of attention in nonverbal perceptual implicit memory and expand knowledge on perceptual implicit memory and verbal conceptual. Two theoretical studies and one empirical were performed. The first theoretical study systematized research that evaluated the role of attention in implicit memory tests (repetition priming) with the paradigm of divided attention in encoding or retrieval phase. A total of 31 empirical articles based on pre-established criteria. The conclusion was that the primings, perceptual and conceptual, are affected by divided attention in encoding when the secondary task demands more attention, that is, when requires frequent response and it is presented synchronously to the memory target stimulus. Few studies was conducted in the retrieval phase and indicated that the primings are immune to divided attention. The second theoretical study aimed to present and discuss methodological aspects relevant to the elaboration of experiments using repetition priming, with emphasis on the selection of materials (software, standardized stimuli lists for Brazil and relevance of psycholinguistic factors) and variable manipulation (pre-calibration experimental, instructions and exposure time of the stimuli, for example). Recommendations for future research are presented. The empirical paper was the third study and included three experiments. The experiments explored the role of attention in nonverbal perceptual implicit memory and expanded the results with perceptual tests and verbal conceptual, evaluating the effects of divided attention on new experimental conditions. Experiment 1 used the implicit picture fragment completion test with a secondary task of judgment tones; Experiment 2 used word stem completion and the experiment 3, exemplary production category, both with a secondary task of judgment consonant sequences. The results showed that implicit memory was affected by divided attention in picture fragment completion and category exemplar production, while word stem completion was immune to the effects of divided attention. Collectively, the results indicated that, under some circumstances, perceptual implicit memory requires attentional resources in recovery. Attentional resources are required by the conceptual implicit memory, as hypothesized in the literature.

Research shows a strong association between attentional bias to threat and emotional regulation difficulties, specifically heightened activation of neural areas known to be involved in emotional processing (amygdala) in individuals who report post-traumatic stress symptoms. Theoretical and research evidence suggests that the enhancing of felt attachment security through security-priming may grant an individual access to effective emotion regulation strategies, which in turn may reduce attentional bias and associated abnormal neural activations. Trauma-survivors with elevated anxiety levels were randomised into an experimental group (secure attachment priming, n=16) where they were primed using positive attachment-related pictures, or a neutral control priming condition (n=18) where they viewed non attachment pictures of people. Participants then completed a dot-probe task to measure attentional bias to threat, and an emotionally threatening face-matching task to probe amygdala activation. No between groups differences were found on measures of attentional bias. Contrary to the hypothesis, participants in the security-priming group showed significantly greater amygdala activation in response to threatening faces. Attachment style was not found to moderate the impact of security-priming on attentional bias or neural activation. Interpersonal trauma experiences make up the majority of the study sample. The impact of this is considered in the context of short-term single exposure to explicit attachment based security-priming interventions and the study paradigm employed to measure amygdala activation, which may act to initially dysregulate and contraindicate activation of a secure attachment representation, respectively.

No description available.

Identifying and locating specific objects amidst irrelevant, distracting items can be difficult when one is unsure of where, or even what, to look for. Priming the perceptual/cognitive system for specific features or objects is one way of helping observers to locate and identify target items (e.g., Grice&Gwynne, 1985; Laarni and Hakkinen, 1994). Past research has demonstrated that priming single features does indeed affect search performance (e.g., Hailston&Davis, 2006; Huang&Pashler, 2005). But, what happens when more than one feature is primed? Does priming two features result in better performance than priming only one? What about three features? How does feature priming compare to simply priming the entire object itself? The current research addressed these questions with a series of three visual search experiments. In the first experiment performance in simple feature search was compared against triple-conjunction search performance. Three prominent models of visual search were compared to see which best predicted actual performance. In the second and third experiments the effects of multiple feature priming on search accuracy were examined in a triple-conjunction search (Experiment 2) and a whole-object search (Experiment 3). Moreover, in Experiment 3 the effectiveness of whole-object primes were compared to multiple-features primes. Results show that none of the three models can accurately predict performance in all cases, suggesting some modification of each is necessary. Furthermore, valid primes resulted in performance benefits, and these benefits increased with the number of primed features. Finally, no performance costs of invalid priming were observed in the current experiments.

[Truncated abstract] The finding that less time is needed to evaluate the valence of a target when it is preceded by a prime of the same valence, as opposed to one of the opposite valence, has become known as the affective priming effect. The research reported here investigated a new model of the mechanisms underlying affective priming effects, which focuses on the role of specific emotions within global valence categories. Specifically, this model stipulates that when presented with a stimulus that elicits particular emotions, the area of the brain corresponding to that emotion is automatically stimulated. This in turn will produce a diffuse activation of meaning nodes that are associated with that emotion. This emotion-based priming model departs from previous spreading activation accounts of affective priming, as it suggests that the facilitation effects observed in such studies may be due primarily to spreading activation via emotion-congruent, rather than valence-congruent, nodes. The overarching goal of the empirical research programme reported here was to test predictions based on this model. In three studies, facilitation effects ascribable to specific emotion-based congruence (e.g., fear-fear) were compared with those ascribable to global valence-based congruence (e.g., negative-negative) alone (i.e., in the absence of emotion-based congruence). Participants made valence judgements on targets which represented one of five basic human emotions: one positive (happy) and four negative (disgust, fear, sad, and anger). ... The fundamental design elements were the same across all three studies: the only difference was in the stimulus format of the prime-target pairs: emotion-laden scenes were used in Study One; facial expressions in Study Two; and emotion-laden words in Study Three. Results showed that, in comparison to the neutral and incongruent baselines, there were significant emotion-based priming effects across all stimulus formats. This result was also consistent across all of the negative emotions employed. Significant valence-based priming effects were, however, also obtained in each of the three studies, although these effects were more inconsistent than those obtained for emotion-based priming. That is, reaction times were significantly shorter on valence-congruent than on neutral and incongruent baseline trials, but only for a portion of the tests performed across the three studies. In Studies One and Two, reaction times were consistently shorter for emotion-congruent prime-target pairs than for valence-congruent prime-target pairs. This trend was absent in Study Three, in which word stimuli were used. These results indicate that while reaction times were facilitated, albeit inconsistently, for valence-congruent prime-target pairs, they were facilitated significantly further for emotion-congruent pairs when picture-based stimuli were used. The emotion-based and valence-based priming effects obtained across the three studies are discussed in terms of three competing theories: (i) spreading activation via global valence nodes, (ii) spreading activation via emotion centres, and (iii) expectancy-based processes. A dual-process hypothesis of affective priming is then proposed. The plausibility of the hypothesis is then explored through a synthesis and re-examination of results reported in previous affective priming research. Directions for future research to elaborate and extend on this work are discussed.

O objetivo geral da presente tese foi investigar possíveis efeitos da atenção dividida da memória implícita perceptual não-verbal e verbal, e conceitual na fase de recuperação. Foram realizados dois estudos teóricos e um empírico. O primeiro estudo teórico teve o objetivo de revisar sistematicamente pesquisas que avaliaram o papel da atenção em testes de memória implícita (priming de repetição) com o paradigma da atenção dividida, na fase de codificação ou de recuperação. Foram selecionados 31 artigos empíricos com base em critérios pré-estabelecidos. Concluiu-se que os primings, perceptual e conceitual, são afetados pela atenção dividida na codificação quando a tarefa secundária demanda mais atenção, isto é, quando exige resposta frequente e é apresentada sincrônica ao estímulo alvo de memória. Poucos estudos foram realizados na fase de recuperação e indicaram imunidade desses primings à atenção dividida. O segundo estudo buscou apresentar e discutir aspectos metodológicos relevantes à elaboração de experimentos usando priming de repetição, com ênfase na seleção de materiais (software, listas de estímulos normatizados para o Brasil e relevância de fatores psicolinguísticos) e manipulação de variáveis (calibração pré-experimental, instruções e tempo de exposição dos estímulos, por exemplo). Recomendações para pesquisas futuras foram apresentadas. O artigo empírico foi o terceiro estudo e incluiu três experimentos. Os experimentos exploraram o papel da atenção na memória implícita perceptual não verbal e expandiram os resultados com testes perceptual e conceitual verbal, avaliando os efeitos da atenção dividida em novas condições experimentais. O experimento 1 utilizou o teste implícito de completar fragmentos de figuras com uma tarefa secundária de julgamento de tons; o experimento 2 utilizou completar radical de palavra e o experimento 3, produção de exemplar da categoria, ambos com uma tarefa secundária de julgamento de sequências de consoantes. Os resultados evidenciaram que a memória implícita foi afetada pela atenção dividida nos testes de completar fragmentos de figura e produção de exemplar da categoria, enquanto completar radical de palavra foi imune aos efeitos da divisão da atenção. Coletivamente, os resultados indicaram que, sob algumas circunstâncias, memória implícita perceptual exige recursos atencionais na recuperação. Recursos atencionais são exigidos pela memória implícita conceitual, tal como hipotetizado na literatura. / The general aim of this thesis was to investigate the role of attention in nonverbal perceptual implicit memory and expand knowledge on perceptual implicit memory and verbal conceptual. Two theoretical studies and one empirical were performed. The first theoretical study systematized research that evaluated the role of attention in implicit memory tests (repetition priming) with the paradigm of divided attention in encoding or retrieval phase. A total of 31 empirical articles based on pre-established criteria. The conclusion was that the primings, perceptual and conceptual, are affected by divided attention in encoding when the secondary task demands more attention, that is, when requires frequent response and it is presented synchronously to the memory target stimulus. Few studies was conducted in the retrieval phase and indicated that the primings are immune to divided attention. The second theoretical study aimed to present and discuss methodological aspects relevant to the elaboration of experiments using repetition priming, with emphasis on the selection of materials (software, standardized stimuli lists for Brazil and relevance of psycholinguistic factors) and variable manipulation (pre-calibration experimental, instructions and exposure time of the stimuli, for example). Recommendations for future research are presented. The empirical paper was the third study and included three experiments. The experiments explored the role of attention in nonverbal perceptual implicit memory and expanded the results with perceptual tests and verbal conceptual, evaluating the effects of divided attention on new experimental conditions. Experiment 1 used the implicit picture fragment completion test with a secondary task of judgment tones; Experiment 2 used word stem completion and the experiment 3, exemplary production category, both with a secondary task of judgment consonant sequences. The results showed that implicit memory was affected by divided attention in picture fragment completion and category exemplar production, while word stem completion was immune to the effects of divided attention. Collectively, the results indicated that, under some circumstances, perceptual implicit memory requires attentional resources in recovery. Attentional resources are required by the conceptual implicit memory, as hypothesized in the literature.

O objetivo geral da presente tese foi investigar possíveis efeitos da atenção dividida da memória implícita perceptual não-verbal e verbal, e conceitual na fase de recuperação. Foram realizados dois estudos teóricos e um empírico. O primeiro estudo teórico teve o objetivo de revisar sistematicamente pesquisas que avaliaram o papel da atenção em testes de memória implícita (priming de repetição) com o paradigma da atenção dividida, na fase de codificação ou de recuperação. Foram selecionados 31 artigos empíricos com base em critérios pré-estabelecidos. Concluiu-se que os primings, perceptual e conceitual, são afetados pela atenção dividida na codificação quando a tarefa secundária demanda mais atenção, isto é, quando exige resposta frequente e é apresentada sincrônica ao estímulo alvo de memória. Poucos estudos foram realizados na fase de recuperação e indicaram imunidade desses primings à atenção dividida. O segundo estudo buscou apresentar e discutir aspectos metodológicos relevantes à elaboração de experimentos usando priming de repetição, com ênfase na seleção de materiais (software, listas de estímulos normatizados para o Brasil e relevância de fatores psicolinguísticos) e manipulação de variáveis (calibração pré-experimental, instruções e tempo de exposição dos estímulos, por exemplo). Recomendações para pesquisas futuras foram apresentadas. O artigo empírico foi o terceiro estudo e incluiu três experimentos. Os experimentos exploraram o papel da atenção na memória implícita perceptual não verbal e expandiram os resultados com testes perceptual e conceitual verbal, avaliando os efeitos da atenção dividida em novas condições experimentais. O experimento 1 utilizou o teste implícito de completar fragmentos de figuras com uma tarefa secundária de julgamento de tons; o experimento 2 utilizou completar radical de palavra e o experimento 3, produção de exemplar da categoria, ambos com uma tarefa secundária de julgamento de sequências de consoantes. Os resultados evidenciaram que a memória implícita foi afetada pela atenção dividida nos testes de completar fragmentos de figura e produção de exemplar da categoria, enquanto completar radical de palavra foi imune aos efeitos da divisão da atenção. Coletivamente, os resultados indicaram que, sob algumas circunstâncias, memória implícita perceptual exige recursos atencionais na recuperação. Recursos atencionais são exigidos pela memória implícita conceitual, tal como hipotetizado na literatura. / The general aim of this thesis was to investigate the role of attention in nonverbal perceptual implicit memory and expand knowledge on perceptual implicit memory and verbal conceptual. Two theoretical studies and one empirical were performed. The first theoretical study systematized research that evaluated the role of attention in implicit memory tests (repetition priming) with the paradigm of divided attention in encoding or retrieval phase. A total of 31 empirical articles based on pre-established criteria. The conclusion was that the primings, perceptual and conceptual, are affected by divided attention in encoding when the secondary task demands more attention, that is, when requires frequent response and it is presented synchronously to the memory target stimulus. Few studies was conducted in the retrieval phase and indicated that the primings are immune to divided attention. The second theoretical study aimed to present and discuss methodological aspects relevant to the elaboration of experiments using repetition priming, with emphasis on the selection of materials (software, standardized stimuli lists for Brazil and relevance of psycholinguistic factors) and variable manipulation (pre-calibration experimental, instructions and exposure time of the stimuli, for example). Recommendations for future research are presented. The empirical paper was the third study and included three experiments. The experiments explored the role of attention in nonverbal perceptual implicit memory and expanded the results with perceptual tests and verbal conceptual, evaluating the effects of divided attention on new experimental conditions. Experiment 1 used the implicit picture fragment completion test with a secondary task of judgment tones; Experiment 2 used word stem completion and the experiment 3, exemplary production category, both with a secondary task of judgment consonant sequences. The results showed that implicit memory was affected by divided attention in picture fragment completion and category exemplar production, while word stem completion was immune to the effects of divided attention. Collectively, the results indicated that, under some circumstances, perceptual implicit memory requires attentional resources in recovery. Attentional resources are required by the conceptual implicit memory, as hypothesized in the literature.

In the course of development organisms learn to associate their actions with the effects these actions have in the environment. Recent studies have shown that perceiving or anticipating action-effects automatically activates actions, which formerly have been experienced to cause these effects (Elsner & Hommel, 2001). Using subliminal priming paradigms and electrophysiological measures I investigated whether subliminally (i.e., not consciously perceivable) presented action-effects can automatically activate associated actions and if so, whether this response priming by action-effects can bias free-choice actions. Secondly I investigated whether action-effects with different emotional valences influence response selection differently. To address the first question three experiments were performed. Each experiment consisted of two experimental phases. The first phase, the acquisition-phase, was a learning phase were simple key-press actions were associated with simple visual stimuli (i.e., action-effects; diamond or square) that were contingent on the actions. Immediately after the acquisition-phase the test-phase followed, in which participants performed free-choice actions after the presentation of a Go-signal. In Experiments 2 and 3 a NoGo-signal indicating that responses had to be withheld could appear with the same likelihood as the Go-signal. Unknown to the participants, one of the former action-effects (diamond or square) was presented subliminally prior to each Go- and NoGo-signal to investigate the influence of unconscious action-effects on response selection. Taken together, the results of the test-phases provided strong evidence that even subliminally presented (i.e., unconscious) action-effects can automatically activate associated responses. The response priming by action-effects became evident in the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), an electrophysiological indicator of specific response activation processes. Under certain circumstanced this automatic response activation can bias free-choice actions although participants experienced the actions as freely chosen. In the test-phase of the first experiment more acquisition-phase-consistent than –inconsistent responses were chosen. If, for instance, a left key-press had been associated with a square during the acquisition-phase, the left key was chosen significantly more often after the subliminal presentation of a square in the test-phase. At least three factors seemed to influence which responses were chosen and executed: The strength of the priming effect, the complexity of the task (i.e., pure Go-blocks or intermixed Go/NoGo-blocks), and the elapsed time between the prime stimulus and the Go-signal. To address the second question simple key-press actions were linked to action-effects with different emotional valences (positive vs. negative pictures accompanied by high or low tones) during the acquisition-phase. In the subsequent test-phase, the effects-tones that had been associated with negative or positive pictures were presented and followed by a Go-signal, after which participants had to freely choose to press one of the two response keys. Results indicated that the anticipation of the emotional valence of an action-effect influenced free-choice action. Whereas the effect-tones induced a clear response bias (i.e., more acquisition-consistent than –inconsistent key-choices) if they had been associated with a positive emotional valence, this response bias was not reliable for action-effects associated with negative emotional features. In summary, the present results provide further proof for ideomotor theories of action control (James, 1890; Elsner & Hommel, 2001) which state that actions are automatically activated by anticipating their consequences.

An ambient odour of anise was used in a context-dependent memory study with three different memory tasks targeting both declarative and non-declarative memory functions. Declarative memory was assessed by means of two episodic memory tests; recall of a prose text and a complex figure. Priming was used to assess the non-declarative memory with word fragment completion. Memory was tested immediately and after 48 hours. The results showed a significant main effect of context (odour or not) for all three tests in favour of the olfactory context. In addition, a significant main effect of time was observed for all three tests and a significant interaction effect between context and time for the priming test were observed. This interaction showed that the priming effect was equal in size across both conditions at immediate testing, although when the odour was reinstated at the delayed test the results showed larger priming relative the control condition.