Wolff P, Rübeling H
Fachbereich Psychologie, Universität Osnabrück.
Z Exp Angew Psychol. 1994;41(4):678-97.
Three experiments investigated the influence of a non-consciously perceived visual signal on motor reaction time when subjects were exposed to a stimulus contingency according to the general rules of the Pavlovian conditioning procedure. Conscious perception was prevented by meta-contrast backward masking. A total of 128 adult subjects had to discriminate between two imperative stimuli by means of a choice reaction. Each imperative stimulus was signalled by a different brief figural stimulus (signal). In Experiment 1, the signal was not masked during the training period but was masked during the subsequent test period. The subjects were unable to report the stimulus-contingency to which they were exposed during the training period. Inspite of masking, the signal remained efficient, i.e., reaction time increased when the stimulus-contingency was inverted. In Experiment 2, the signal was masked during the training period but not during the test period. There was no evidence that the masked signal influenced reaction time. In Experiment 3, during the training period, the signal was followed by a distractor instead of the mask. As a result, the distractor prevented the signal from becoming an efficient stimulus similar to the mask in Experiment 2. The data suggest that preattentive (non-conscious) processing is sufficient for a previously learned signal to influence reaction time. On the other hand, focussed attention seems to be a precondition for a stimulus becoming an efficient signal.
三项实验研究了在受试者按照经典条件作用程序的一般规则接触刺激偶联时，一种非意识感知的视觉信号对运动反应时间的影响。通过元对比逆向掩蔽来防止意识感知。共有128名成年受试者必须通过选择反应来区分两种指令性刺激。每种指令性刺激都由不同的简短图形刺激（信号）发出信号。在实验1中，信号在训练期间未被掩蔽，但在随后的测试期间被掩蔽。受试者无法报告他们在训练期间所接触的刺激偶联。尽管有掩蔽，信号仍然有效，即当刺激偶联反转时反应时间增加。在实验2中，信号在训练期间被掩蔽，但在测试期间未被掩蔽。没有证据表明被掩蔽的信号会影响反应时间。在实验3中，在训练期间，信号之后是一个干扰物而不是掩蔽物。结果，干扰物阻止了信号像实验2中的掩蔽物那样成为一个有效的刺激。数据表明，前注意（非意识）加工足以使先前学习的信号影响反应时间。另一方面，集中注意力似乎是刺激成为有效信号的一个前提条件。
