Inhibition is picky: shape difference is a necessary condition for attentional inhibition of irrelevant objects.

The present study investigated the conditions for attentional amplification in the processing of relevant objects and for attentional inhibition in the processing of irrelevant objects. Participants reported the color of one of two superimposed objects that was specified by occlusion. Irrelevant color words were presented as part of the relevant object, as part of the irrelevant object, or in the background; the words were either congruent or incongruent with the color of the relevant object.

Decomposing the emotional Stroop effect.

The emotional Stroop effect refers to the phenomenon that participants are faster in responding to the ink colour of neutral than of negative word stimuli, possibly reflecting fast and automatic allocation of attention towards negative stimuli. However, this interpretation was challenged by McKenna and Sharma (2004) who found that the emotional Stroop effect reflected a generic slowdown after negative stimuli. In fact, they even found reversed effects in a design in which neutral stimuli more often followed negative stimuli and vice versa.

Where has all the inhibition gone? Insights from electrophysiological measures into negative priming without probe distractors.

Responses to probe targets that have been distractors in a prime display are slower than responses to unrepeated stimuli, a finding labeled negative priming (NP). However, without probe distractors the NP effect usually diminishes. The present study is the first to investigate ERP correlates of NP without probe distractors to shed light on the processes underlying NP.

The time-course of masked negative priming.

Negative priming (NP) refers to the finding that reaction times and errors increase when a previously ignored prime distractor is presented as a target. In a variant of this task, the prime display is composed of only a single masked distractor that is followed by the simultaneous presentation of a target and a distractor in the probe display. In one experiment, we explore the time-course of masked NP using different variations of the prime-probe interval (short, medium, and long), and compare the results with time-course investigations of unmasked NP.

Reversing the N400: event-related potentials of a negative semantic priming effect.

We investigated electrophysiological correlates of the access to semantic representations. Participants had to make word/nonword decisions to target words. A first word (i.

Center-surround or spreading inhibition: which mechanism caused the negative effect from repeated masked semantic primes?

In the paradigm of repeated masked semantic priming (Wentura & Frings. 2005), prime and mask are repeatedly and rapidly interchanged. Using this technique in a semantic priming task with category labels as primes and category exemplars as targets (related, e.

VEGF-D expression correlates with colorectal cancer aggressiveness and is downregulated by cetuximab.

Aim: To gain mechanistic insights into the role played by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in the regulation of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) in colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods: The impact of high-level expression of the growth factor receptors EGFR and VEGF receptor (VEGFR)3 and the VEGFR3 ligands VEGF-C and VEGF-D on disease progression and prognosis in human CRC was investigated in 108 patients using immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the expression of the lymphangiogenic factors in response to the modulation of EGFR signalling by the EGFR-targeted monoclonal antibody cetuximab was investigated at the mRNA and protein level in human SW480 and SW620 CRC cell lines and a mouse xenograft model.

Analysing the relationship between target-to-target and distractor-to-target repetitions: evidence for a common mechanism.

In the present study an assumption of retrieval theories of negative priming was tested. In particular, retrieval theories assume that the same underlying process causes benefits in target-to-target repetition trials and cost effects in distractor-to-target repetition trials in selection tasks in which targets are accompanied by distractor stimuli. More specifically, retrieval theories predict a negative correlation: The higher the benefit in target-to-target repetition trials is, the higher the cost effect in distractor-to-target repetition trials should be.

Further evidence for "hyper-priming" in thought-disordered schizophrenic patients using repeated masked category priming.

Background: Previous research has yielded evidence for enhanced semantic priming in formal thought-disordered schizophrenia patients, a result that fits well with the hypothesis of disinhibited processes of spreading activation in this population.

Methods: The present study tested this hypothesis by using masked repetition priming, which yields reversed semantic priming effects in healthy participants. Assuming that performance in this paradigm relies on a balance between activation and inhibition processes in healthy participants, we compared formal thought-disordered schizophrenia patients, non-thought disordered schizophrenia patients, and healthy controls.

Selection in touch: negative priming with tactile stimuli.

Abundant experimental evidence has demonstrated attentional selection within the visual modality. Furthermore, the consensus view is currently that two processes contribute to selection: the amplification of the target stimuli and the ignoring (or suppression) of any distractor information. However, at present it is less clear how selection is achieved within the tactile modality.

Nature and facts about natural and artifactual categories: Sex differences in the semantic priming paradigm.

There is abundant evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological experiments for the distinction of natural versus artifactual categories and a gender-specific difference: women's performances in cognitive tasks increase when natural categories are used, whereas men's performances increase with artifactual categories. Here, we used the semantic priming paradigm to study retrieval processes by presenting category labels as primes and exemplars as targets. Overall, in two experiments we found larger priming effects for natural than for artifactual categories.

Trial-by-trial effects in the affective priming paradigm.

In this paper, we yield evidence for the dependence of affective priming on the congruency of the previous trial. Affective priming refers to the finding that valence categorizations of targets are facilitated when the preceding prime is of the same valence. In two experiments, affective priming was diminished after incongruent trials (i.

A case for inhibition: visual attention suppresses the processing of irrelevant objects.

The present study investigated the ability to inhibit the processing of an irrelevant visual object while processing a relevant one. Participants were presented with 2 overlapping shapes (e.g.

Electrophysiological correlates of visual identity negative priming.

Negative priming (NP) refers to the finding that the processing of stimuli previously ignored is usually impaired in terms of reaction times and error rates. Although a robust empirical phenomenon, behavioral experiments were not able to ultimately distinguish between retrieval- and inhibition-based accounts of NP. Electrophysiological measures may help improve our understanding of this phenomenon.

Distractor repetitions retrieve previous responses to targets.

Response retrieval theories assume that stimuli and responses become integrated into "event files" (Hommel, 1998) in memory so that a second encounter with a specific stimulus automatically retrieves the response that was previously associated with this stimulus. In this article, we tested a specific prediction of a recent variant of stimulus retrieval theories as introduced by Rothermund, Wentura, and De Houwer (2005): In selection tasks where target stimuli are accompanied by distractors, responses to target stimuli are automatically bound to distractor stimuli as well; repeating the distractor should retrieve the response to the target that formerly accompanied the distractor. In three experiments we confirmed this prediction: Distractor repetition facilitated responding in the probe in the case of response repetition whereas repeating the distractor delayed responding in the case of response change.

Children do show negative priming: further evidence for early development of an intact selective control mechanism.

Reactions to stimuli that were shortly before presented as distractors are usually slowed down; this phenomenon is known as negative priming. Negative priming is an accepted index for tapping into selective control mechanisms. Although this effect is well established for adults, it has been claimed that children do not show negative priming.

Prime display offset modulates negative priming only for easy-selection tasks.

Responses to probe targets that have been distractors in a prime display are slower than responses to new targets, a finding called negative priming (NP). The selective attention model, which attributes NP to lingering inhibition of the prime distractor, predicts that NP should occur only when the prime display has disappeared before the probe display is processed. The present study tested this prediction both in easy- and in difficult selection tasks.

Relevant distractors do not cause negative priming.

Highly relevant stimuli (such as one's own name) can capture attention in situations in which one can only partially attend to the environment (e.g., the classic "cocktail party" phenomenon, introduced by Moray, 1959).

Strategy effects counteract distractor inhibition: negative priming with constantly absent probe distractors.

It is an accepted, albeit puzzling finding that negative priming (NP) hinges on the presence of distractors in probe displays. In three experiments without probe distractors, the authors yielded evidence that response-biasing processes based on the contingency between prime and probe displays may have caused this finding. It is argued that it is of help in standard NP experiments to process the distractor in the prime display in order to prepare the response to the probe target.

Negative priming is stronger for task-relevant dimensions: Evidence of flexibility in the selective ignoring of distractor information.

The finding that in selective attention tasks responses to previously ignored stimuli are usually retarded is known as negative priming (NP). In previous studies it has been suggested that NP can depend on behavioural goals--that is, NP was observed only for task-relevant object dimensions. We extend these findings with two experiments demonstrating that stronger NP can be observed for task-relevant dimensions than for task-irrelevant dimensions (a) even if participants' tasks vary blockwise within an experiment and (b) if behavioural goals vary from trial to trial.

Negative priming with masked distractor-only prime trials: awareness moderates negative priming.

The literature yields inconsistent evidence for negative priming (NP) following masked distractor-only prime trials. We contrast two different hypotheses on the inconsistent findings: one - which is most compatible with the temporal discrimination theory - that relates the sign of priming effects to the absence vs. presence of prime awareness and one -which is most compatible with the inhibition and episodic retrieval accounts - that relates the sign of priming effects to the prime event being categorized as a to-be-attended vs.

Repeated masked category primes interfere with related exemplars: new evidence for negative semantic priming.

In 4 experiments, the authors found evidence for negatively signed masked semantic priming effects (with category names as primes and exemplars as targets) using a new technique of presenting the masked primes. By rapidly interchanging prime and mask during the stimulus onset asynchrony, they increased the total prime exposure to a level comparable with that of a typical visible prime condition without increasing the number of participants having an awareness of the prime. The negative effect was observed for only low-dominance exemplars and not for high-dominance exemplars.