Dynamics of priming-effect for subliminally presented ambiguous pictures

ABSTRACT

The results of this study confirmed that people react differently to preferred meanings of ambiguous images (to those that will get into consciousness later) and to rejected meanings of ambiguous images (those that will not). We observed a facilitative after-effect of the preferred meaning which was expressed in the positive priming-effect, and the following dynamics of the rejected meaning after-effect: positive priming at small values of SOA (30 ms), negative at bigger SOA values (530 ms) and positive priming at all the following SOA values (1,030, 3,030 and 5,030 ms). These results imply that subliminal perception, as well as supraliminal, is selective. We believe that negative priming for one of the meanings of an ambiguous image presented subliminally might be associated with an unconscious decision as to whether or not a particular stimulus will enter into consciousness, in accordance with the negative choice theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Ambiguous images
• primes presented subliminally
• SOA
• lexical decision
• negative choice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project No 18-00-00646 К (18-00-00644).