Evidence for top-down matching in visual repetition priming with abstract shapes

Birgitta Dresp (1)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Whether physical and structural attributes of visual stimuli engender automatic priming effects is a much debated issue. In this study, we investigated effects of shape and colour of abstract visual shapes (primes) on the identification of subsequently presented target shapes (probes). Two independent groups of observers were tested. One group was explicitly told that the primes preceding the probes could be relevant for identification, the other group was merely instructed to identify the shape of the probes. We find significant interactions between primes and probes in the group of observers who received the explicit instructions. These interactions reveal that probes with the same shape and colour as the prime are processed faster than probes with only the same shape. Probes with the same colour as a prime but different shape yield longer response latencies than probes preceded by primes with the same shape and colour, by non-congruent primes, or by no prime at all. The findings provide evidence for a top-down matching mechanism in shape priming, which explains phenomena such as attentional binding by interaction between neurons sensitive to the shape and the colour of visual stimuli.

Domaines: Sciences cognitives

Birgitta Dresp. Evidence for top-down matching in visual repetition priming with abstract shapes. 2014. ⟨hal-01064702⟩