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Department of Cognitive Science

Temporal dynamics of masked congruence priming: evidence from reaching trajectories

Jason Friedman (jason.friedman@mq.edu.au)
Matthew Finkbeiner (matthew.finkbeiner@maccs.mq.edu.au)
Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney

Abstract

The masked congruence priming effect (MCE) has proven valuable in the investigation of nonconscious cognitive processes. While previous studies have used reaction time (RT) as the dependent variable, and found no difference between repeated primes (which also appear as targets) and novel primes (which do not appear as targets), this study, which had subjects point to the targets while the hand location is continually sampled, did find significant differences. Arm movements were decomposed into the summation of a number of submovements. The parameters describing these submovements were found to be different between repeated and novel primes. This novel method of analysis may provide an insight into the time course of the decision making process, and describes a feasible mechanism for how perceptual information can be transformed into motor plans at discrete times.

Citation details for this article:

Friedman, J., Finkbeiner, M. (2010). Temporal dynamics of masked congruence priming: evidence from reaching trajectories. In W. Christensen, E. Schier, and J. Sutton (Eds.), ASCS09: Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the Australasian Society for Cognitive Science (pp. 98-105). Sydney: Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science.

DOI: 10.5096/ASCS200916
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