Liu Chengzhen, Sun Zhiyi, Jou Jerwen, Cui Qian, Zhao Guang, Qiu Jiang, Tu Shen
Department of Psychology, Institute of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637002, China.
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
PLoS One. 2016 Sep 13;11(9):e0162689. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162689. eCollection 2016.
Although a few studies have investigated the integration between some types of unconscious stimuli, no research has yet explored the integration between unconscious emotional stimuli. This study was designed to provide behavioral evidence for the integration between unconsciously perceived emotional faces (same or different valence relation) using a modified priming paradigm. In two experiments, participants were asked to decide whether two faces in the target, which followed two subliminally presented faces of same or different emotional expressions, were of the same or different emotional valence. The interstimulus interval (ISI) between the prime and the target was manipulated (0, 53, 163 ms). In Experiment 1, prime visibility was assessed post-experiment. In Experiment 2, it was assessed on each trial. Interestingly, in both experiments, unconsciously processed valence relation of the two faces in the prime generated a negative priming effect in the response to the supraliminally presented target, independent of the length of ISI. Further analyses suggested that the negative priming was probably caused by a motor response incongruent relation between the subliminally perceived prime and the supraliminally perceived target. The visual feature incongruent relation across the prime and target was not found to play a role in the negative priming. Because the negative priming was found at short ISI, an attention mechanism as well as a motor inhibition mechanism were proposed in the generation of the negative priming effect. Overall, this study indicated that the subliminal valence relation was processed, and that integration between different unconsciously perceived stimuli could occur.
尽管有一些研究调查了某些类型的无意识刺激之间的整合，但尚未有研究探索无意识情绪刺激之间的整合。本研究旨在使用改良的启动范式，为无意识感知的情绪面孔（相同或不同效价关系）之间的整合提供行为证据。在两个实验中，要求参与者判断在两个阈下呈现的相同或不同表情的面孔之后的目标中的两张面孔的情绪效价是相同还是不同。启动刺激和目标刺激之间的刺激间隔（ISI）被操纵（0、53、163毫秒）。在实验1中，实验后评估启动刺激的可见性。在实验2中，在每次试验中评估启动刺激的可见性。有趣的是，在两个实验中，启动刺激中两张面孔的无意识处理的效价关系在对阈上呈现的目标的反应中产生了负启动效应，与ISI的长度无关。进一步的分析表明，负启动可能是由阈下感知的启动刺激和阈上感知的目标刺激之间的运动反应不一致关系引起的。未发现启动刺激和目标刺激之间的视觉特征不一致关系在负启动中起作用。由于在短ISI时发现了负启动，因此在负启动效应的产生中提出了一种注意机制以及一种运动抑制机制。总体而言，本研究表明阈下效价关系得到了处理，并且不同的无意识感知刺激之间可以发生整合。
