Flowers Colin S, Peterson Mary A
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
J Vis. 2018 Dec 3;18(13):3. doi: 10.1167/18.13.3.
Previous research demonstrated that familiar objects that are suggested, but not consciously perceived, on the groundside of the contours of a figure activate their semantic category during perceptual organization, at least when the figure appears at fixation at an expected time. Here, we investigate whether evidence for such semantic activation extends to stimuli presented at unpredictable times in peripheral locations. Participants categorized words shown centrally as denoting natural or artificial objects (Experiments 1 and 2a) or positive or negative concepts (Experiment 2b). Prior to the word, two distractor silhouettes appeared above and below fixation; both depicted novel figures. On experimental trials, portions of well-known (familiar) objects were suggested on the groundside of the borders of one (Experiment 1) or both (Experiment 2a and 2b) silhouettes. In Experiment 1, reaction times were slower when targets words were preceded by experimental distractor silhouettes regardless of whether the object suggested on the groundside of their borders was in the same or a different category as the object denoted by the word. Overall slowing may have occurred because (a) semantic category access by objects suggested on the groundside of experimental distractor silhouettes was sufficient to require filtering but not category-specific priming, (b) more competition for object status slowed processing of experimental compared to control silhouettes, or (c) featural differences increased the difficulty of processing the experimental versus the control silhouettes. The use of two identical experimental silhouettes in Experiment 2a allowed a semantic category priming effect to emerge, showing that the categories of objects suggested on the groundside of silhouette borders can be activated at unpredictable times in nontarget locations and in more than one location of the visual field. Experiment 2a suggested that (a) better explains the results of Experiment 1 than (b and c). Experiment 2b further ruled out explanations (b and c) as reasons for the Experiment 1 results by showing that the same pattern is not obtained when the semantic category of the objects suggested on the groundside of the experimental silhouettes borders is not task-relevant and does not require filtering. Thus, spatial prime-target congruence and temporal certainty are not necessary for priming by objects suggested on the groundside of figures. Implications for our understanding of the complex processes involved in perceptual organization are considered.
先前的研究表明，在图形轮廓的底面被暗示但未被有意识感知的熟悉物体，在知觉组织过程中会激活其语义类别，至少当图形在预期时间出现在注视点时是这样。在此，我们研究这种语义激活的证据是否扩展到在周边位置不可预测的时间呈现的刺激。参与者对在中央呈现的表示自然或人造物体（实验1和2a）或积极或消极概念（实验2b）的单词进行分类。在单词出现之前，两个干扰轮廓出现在注视点上方和下方；两者都描绘了新颖的图形。在实验试验中，在一个（实验1）或两个（实验2a和2b）轮廓的边界底面暗示了一些知名（熟悉）物体的部分。在实验1中，当目标单词之前出现实验干扰轮廓时，反应时间会变慢，无论其边界底面暗示的物体与单词所表示的物体属于相同还是不同的类别。总体反应变慢可能是因为：（a）实验干扰轮廓底面暗示的物体对语义类别的访问足以需要进行过滤，但不需要特定类别的启动；（b）与控制轮廓相比，更多对物体状态的竞争减缓了对实验轮廓的处理；或者（c）特征差异增加了处理实验轮廓与控制轮廓的难度。在实验2a中使用两个相同的实验轮廓使得语义类别启动效应得以出现，表明轮廓边界底面暗示的物体类别可以在非目标位置以及视野中的多个位置在不可预测的时间被激活。实验2a表明，（a）比（b和c）更能解释实验1的结果。实验2b通过表明当实验轮廓边界底面暗示的物体的语义类别与任务无关且不需要过滤时不会得到相同的模式，进一步排除了（b和c）作为实验1结果的原因。因此，对于图形底面暗示的物体进行启动，空间启动 - 目标一致性和时间确定性并非必要条件。我们还考虑了这对我们理解知觉组织中涉及的复杂过程的启示。
