TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kiefer, Markus
A1  - Trumpp, Natalie M.
A1  - Schaitz, Caroline
A1  - Reuss, Heiko
A1  - Kunde, Wilfried
T1  - Attentional modulation of masked semantic priming by visible and masked task cues
T2  - Cognition
N2  - In contrast to classical theories of cognitive control, recent evidence suggests that cognitive control and unconscious automatic processing influence each other. First, masked semantic priming, an index of unconscious automatic processing, depends on attention to semantics induced by a previously executed task. Second, cognitive control operations (e.g., implementation of task sets indicating how to process a particular stimulus) can be activated by masked task cues, presented outside awareness. In this study, we combined both lines of research. We investigated in three experiments whether induction tasks and presentation of visible or masked task cues, which signal subsequent semantic or perceptual tasks but do not require induction task execution, comparably modulate masked semantic priming. In line with previous research, priming was consistently larger following execution of a semantic rather than a perceptual induction task. However, we observed in experiment 1 (masked letter cues) a reversed priming pattern following task cues (larger priming following cues signaling perceptual tasks) compared to induction tasks. Experiment 2 (visible letter cues) and experiment 3 (visible color cues) showed that this reversed priming pattern depended only on apriori associations between task cues and task elements (task set dominance), but neither on awareness nor on the verbal or non-verbal format of the cues. These results indicate that task cues have the power to modulate subsequent masked semantic priming through attentional mechanisms. Task-set dominance conceivably affects the time course of task set activation and inhibition in response to task cues and thus the direction of their modulatory effects on priming.
KW  - automatic processes
KW  - unconscious cognition
KW  - attentional control
KW  - semantic priming
KW  - task cue
KW  - task switching
Y1  - 2019
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/32575
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-325751
VL  - 187
ER  -