Hüttermann Stefanie, Bock Otmar, Memmert Daniel
Institute of Cognitive and Team/Racket Sport Research, German Sport University Cologne, Germany.
Institute of Physiology and Anatomy, German Sport University Cologne, Germany.
Conscious Cogn. 2014 Oct;29:230-4. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.08.007. Epub 2014 Oct 3.
Previous studies on semantic priming show that briefly presented words can unconsciously manipulate subjects' mental states, behaviors, and attitudes. Here we evaluated whether semantic primes can also manipulate the breadth of subjects' visual attention. We primed participants with briefly presented words that indicate either broadness or narrowness; each prime was followed by either a large or a small picture of a street intersection with vehicles, and participants had to indicate in which order the vehicles were legally allowed to pass the intersection. Participants responded to large pictures faster when primed with words denoting broadness, and to small pictures faster when primed with words denoting narrowness. From this we concluded that semantic priming can be effectively applied to manipulate the breadth of attention, which could be exploited in real-world scenarios.
