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Missed prime words within the attentional blink evoke an N400 semantic priming effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2001

BETTINA ROLKE ,
MARTIN HEIL ,
JUDITH STREB  and
ERWIN HENNIGHAUSEN
BETTINA ROLKE
Affiliation:
Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
MARTIN HEIL
Affiliation:
Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
JUDITH STREB
Affiliation:
Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
ERWIN HENNIGHAUSEN
Affiliation:
Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
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Abstract

When subjects identified a target among distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation task, the detection of a subsequent target is impaired (attentional blink). By measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) we investigated if the processing of an unidentified prime word elicits the N400 semantic priming effect.

Subjects (N = 12) had to identify three target words among distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation task. We varied the association strength between a prime (second target) and a probe (third target). The detection of the prime was impaired. Missed primes did not elicit a P300, indicating that they were not explicitly recognized. Despite this difference between recognized and missed primes, the N400 effect was present in both cases. This result suggests that automatic spread of activation (ASA) can be evoked by missed primes within the attentional blink. It furthermore demonstrates that ASA is sufficient to evoke the N400 effect.

Keywords

Attentional blinkN400Semantic primingAttentionAutomatic spread of activationERP
Type
SPECIAL REPORT
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , March 2001 , pp. 165 - 174
Copyright
2001 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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