Negative priming in a gender decision task and in a semantic categorization task

In three experiments, we tested the hypothesis that negative priming (NP) can occur without prime or target selection, when conflicting properties are associated with the prime and the target, and when the experimental conditions allow the encoding of the target as a separate episode from the prime. These predictions were confirmed in Experiment 1, using a gender decision task. Responses were slower when prime and target had the same gender than when they had different genders, with an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of 600 ms but not with an ISI of 25 ms. Experiment 2 eliminated a possible explanation of the NP obtained in Experiment 1, in terms of response inhibition during the prime processing. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated the replicability and the generality of our NP, in a semantic categorization task. Empirical and theoretical consequences of our results for studies using the priming paradigm are discussed.