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Response Priming with More or Less Biological Movements as Primes
David Eckert1, Christina Bermeitinger2,3
1Institute for Psychology, University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany.
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|May 7, 2016
Summary
Response priming effects were investigated using various visual motions. Unlike previous findings, this study found positive compatibility effects across all tested motions, even at long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs).
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human Motor Control
- Perception
Background:
- Response priming investigates motor preactivations by comparing reaction times for compatible versus incompatible prime-target trials.
- Previous research noted a shift from positive to negative compatibility effects with increasing stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) using specific horizontal dot motion.
- It remains unclear if this pattern generalizes to other types of visual motion.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if the compatibility effect pattern observed by Bermeitinger (2013) generalizes to different types of visual motion.
- To investigate the role of biological versus less biological motion stimuli in response priming.
- To examine compatibility effects across a wider range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs).
Main Methods:
- Four experiments utilized point-light displays of biological (walkers) and less biological (scrambled/split) motion.
- Two experiments employed eye gaze motions (biological and less biological contexts) using moving dots.
- Participants responded to targets following primes with varying SOAs, up to 1320 ms.
Main Results:
- Large positive compatibility effects were observed with biological motion primes.
- Smaller, but still positive, compatibility effects were found with less biological motion primes.
- No negative compatibility effects were observed, even at very long SOAs (up to 1320 ms).
Conclusions:
- The pattern of positive-then-negative compatibility effects appears specific to the stimuli used in Bermeitinger (2013).
- Response priming is a robust tool for studying motion perception, yielding positive compatibility effects across diverse visual motions.
- Biological motion stimuli elicit stronger response priming effects compared to less biological stimuli.
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