Humphreys G W
Perception. 1978;7(5):589-604. doi: 10.1068/p070589.
Three tachistoscopic experiments are reported in which presentation of the target stimulus in a letter/digit categorization task was preceded by a briefly exposed priming stimulus (letter or digit). The primer was subject to backward masking from either the target or a pattern mask, and observers were unaware of its occurrence. With a primer duration of 25 ms, when masking was presumed to be at a central level, performance deteriorated when the two items were from different categories. This inhibition effect was reduced when the characters were physically similar. In contrast, there was little evidence of facilitated processing when primers validly cued targets. At shorter primer durations, when masking is presumed to be peripheral in origin, between-condition differences were less marked. An interpretation in terms of an active model of information processing, with utilization of both categorical and physical information extracted from the primer, is proposed.
本文报告了三项速示实验，在字母/数字分类任务中，目标刺激呈现之前会先短暂呈现一个启动刺激（字母或数字）。启动刺激会受到来自目标或图案掩蔽的逆向掩蔽，观察者并未意识到其出现。当启动刺激持续时间为25毫秒时，假定掩蔽处于中枢水平，若两个项目属于不同类别，则表现会变差。当字符在外形上相似时，这种抑制效应会减弱。相比之下，当启动刺激有效提示目标时，几乎没有证据表明存在促进加工的情况。在较短的启动刺激持续时间下，假定掩蔽源于外周，条件之间的差异不太明显。本文提出了一种基于信息处理活动模型的解释，该模型利用了从启动刺激中提取的类别信息和外形信息。
