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Behavioural and EEG correlates of forward and backward priming-An exploratory study
Mareike Wilson1,2,3, Marc Wittmann1, Jürgen Kornmeier1,2,3
1Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP), Freiburg, Germany.
Plos One
|May 8, 2025
Summary
Affective priming influences reaction times, with forward priming showing faster responses for congruent stimuli. Backward priming, however, did not yield significant results in this EEG study.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
Background:
- Affective priming demonstrates how emotional stimuli influence subsequent responses.
- Bem's backward priming paradigm suggested precognition by presenting the prime after the target response.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate affective priming using both forward and backward paradigms with EEG.
- To analyze electroencephalography (EEG) data on group and individual levels.
- To replicate and extend previous findings on affective priming.
Main Methods:
- Combined forward and backward affective priming tasks.
- Recorded EEG data during the tasks.
- Analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) and applied artificial neural networks to individual participant data.
Main Results:
- Significantly faster reaction times for congruent vs. incongruent trials in forward priming (p=0.0004).
- No significant difference in reaction times for backward priming (p=0.12).
- Significant ERP amplitude differences in forward priming (P8 electrode: p=0.0002); weaker differences in backward priming.
Conclusions:
- Forward affective priming effects were replicated behaviorally and extended with EEG findings.
- Bem's backward priming results were not replicated in this study.
- Exploratory EEG findings provide a basis for future research, though current backward priming results are weak.
