@article{ReussPohlKieseletal.2015, author = {Reuss, Heiko and Pohl, Carsten and Kiesel, Andrea and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Instructed illiteracy reveals expertise-effects on unconscious processing}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {239}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00239}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125332}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We used a new methodological approach to investigate whether top-down influences like expertise determine the extent of unconscious processing. This approach does not rely on preexisting differences between experts and novices, but instructs essentially the same task in a way that either addresses a domain of expertise or not. Participants either were instructed to perform a lexical decision task (expert task) or to respond to a combination of single features of word and non-word stimuli (novel task). The stimuli and importantly also the mapping of responses to those stimuli, however, were exactly the same in both groups. We analyzed congruency effects of masked primes depending on the instructed task. Participants performing the expert task responded faster and less error prone when the prime was response congruent rather than incongruent. This effect was significantly reduced in the novel task, and even reversed when excluding identical prime-target pairs. This indicates that the primes in the novel task had an effect on a perceptual level, but were not able to impact on response activation. Overall, these results demonstrate an expertise-based top-down modulation of unconscious processing that cannot be explained by confounds that are otherwise inherent in comparisons between novices and experts.}, language = {en} } @article{ReussPohlKieseletal.2011, author = {Reuss, Heiko and Pohl, Carsten and Kiesel, Andrea and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Follow the sign! Top-down contingent attentional capture of masked arrow cues}, series = {Advances in Cognitive Psychology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Advances in Cognitive Psychology}, doi = {10.2478/v10053-008-0091-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-140030}, pages = {82-91}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Arrow cues and other overlearned spatial symbols automatically orient attention according to their spatial meaning. This renders them similar to exogenous cues that occur at stimulus location. Exogenous cues trigger shifts of attention even when they are presented subliminally. Here, we investigate to what extent the mechanisms underlying the orienting of attention by exogenous cues and by arrow cues are comparable by analyzing the effects of visible and masked arrow cues on attention. In Experiment 1, we presented arrow cues with overall 50\% validity. Visible cues, but not masked cues, lead to shifts of attention. In Experiment 2, the arrow cues had an overall validity of 80\%. Now both visible and masked arrows lead to shifts of attention. This is in line with findings that subliminal exogenous cues capture attention only in a top-down contingent manner, that is, when the cues fit the observer's intentions.}, language = {en} } @article{FoersterPfisterReussetal.2017, author = {Foerster, Anna and Pfister, Roland and Reuss, Heiko and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Commentary: Feeling the Conflict: The Crucial Role of Conflict Experience in Adaptation}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1405}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01405}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190032}, year = {2017}, abstract = {A commentary on: Feeling the Conflict: The Crucial Role of Conflict Experience in Adaptationby Desender, K., Van Opstal, F., and Van den Bussche, E. (2014). Psychol. Sci. 25, 675-683. doi:10.1177/0956797613511468 Conflict adaptation in masked priming has recently been proposed to rely not on successful conflictresolution but rather on conflict experience (Desender et al., 2014). We re-assessed this proposal ina direct replication and also tested a potential confound due toconflict strength. The data supported this alternative view, but also failed to replicate basic conflict adaptation effects of the original studydespite considerable power.}, language = {en} } @article{ReussKieselKundeetal.2012, author = {Reuss, Heiko and Kiesel, Andrea and Kunde, Wilfried and W{\"u}hr, Peter}, title = {A cue from the unconscious - masked symbols prompt spatial anticipation}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {3}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-123971}, pages = {397}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Anticipating where an event will occur enables us to instantaneously respond to events that occur at the expected location. Here we investigated if such spatial anticipations can be triggered by symbolic information that participants cannot consciously see. In two experiments involving a Posner cueing task and a visual search task, a central cue informed participants about the likely location of the next target stimulus. In half of the trials, this cue was rendered invisible by pattern masking. In both experiments, visible cues led to cueing effects, that is, faster responses after valid compared to invalid cues. Importantly, even masked cues caused cueing effects, though to a lesser extent. Additionally, we analyzed effects on attention that persist from one trial to the subsequent trial. We found that spatial anticipations are able to interfere with newly formed spatial anticipations and influence orienting of attention in the subsequent trial. When the preceding cue was visible, the corresponding spatial anticipation persisted to an extent that prevented a noticeable effect of masked cues. The effects of visible cues were likewise modulated by previous spatial anticipations, but were strong enough to also exert an impact on attention themselves. Altogether, the results suggest that spatial anticipations can be formed on the basis of unconscious stimuli, but that interfering influences like still active spatial anticipations can suppress this effect.}, language = {en} }