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Reward Influences Masked Free-Choice Priming
Seema Prasad1, Ramesh Kumar Mishra1
1Center for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India.
Frontiers in Psychology
|December 17, 2020
Summary
Reward learning enhances attention to briefly presented stimuli, even when not fully perceived. This study shows reward-associated masked primes improve free-choice responses and speed, impacting attentional control.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
Background:
- Reward is known to prioritize attention.
- The influence of reward learning on unconsciously perceived stimuli (masked primes) is not well understood.
- Masked priming effects can be modulated by attention, challenging automaticity theories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if reward-associated attentional selection influences masked priming effects in free-choice responses.
- To explore the role of reward learning in attentional control beyond traditional bottom-up and top-down mechanisms.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments utilized a masked priming paradigm with number and arrow primes.
- Participants made free choices, with primes presented briefly and masked.
- Primes were associated with either high-reward or no-reward conditions.
Main Results:
- High-reward primes led to enhanced free-choice priming compared to no-reward primes.
- This reward effect was observed in both choice proportions and response times.
- The enhancement was more pronounced in faster responses, diminishing in slower ones.
Conclusions:
- Reward-mediated attentional selection significantly modulates masked priming effects in free-choice tasks.
- This finding highlights the susceptibility of masked priming to reward-based attentional control.
- The study contributes to understanding how attention and executive control interact with unconscious stimulus processing.
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