Roles of processing time and strategic factors in perceptual blindness
Abstract
In consecutive repetition priming, which is the presentation of a target word 500 ms after the same word has been presented, subjects evidence "perceptual blindness," shorter duration judgements and poorer identification accuracy for repeated targets. The current series of experiments sought to learn the extent of circumstances under which perceptual blindness occurs. Experiment 1 involved a manipulation of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and showed that SOA values longer than 500 ms allow reprocessing to occur. Experiment 2, with a variable density of repetitions, showed lessened perceptual blindness under high density of repetitions. Finally, subjects in Experiment 3, who were told that in 50% of the trials the target word was a repetition of the priming word, showed reduced inhibition effects for repeated targets. Overall, the data show that added processing time between prime and target allows better perception of repeated targets and that the bias of subjects against perception of repeated targets can be partially eliminated by factors designed to affect subject strategies. Theories to explain perceptual blindness and the automatic and strategic components of perceptual blindness were also discussed.
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- OSU Dissertations [11222]