Priming by motion too rapid to be consciously seen.

When a rapidly rotating ring of dots was briefly flashed, observers saw only a solid ring with no discriminable rotation. However, when this stimulus served as a prime that was followed by a target that consisted of a clearly rotating ring of dots, response times (RTs) to report the target's rotation were shorter when the prime and target directions were congruent than when they were incongruent. In accord with shape priming data, this priming effect increased monotonically with the prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA). The prime also biased the perceived direction of an ambiguous apparent motion target, but only at an intermediate SOA. At the same SOA, we also found that target presentations enabled above-chance discrimination of prime's rotation direction. These outcomes demonstrate the processing of motion direction information that is not phenomenally represented. They suggest a common mechanism may mediate the priming of RTs by shape and motion, whereas a different mechanism mediates perceptual measures of motion priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Accession Number: 2007-18138-011. PMID: 18078229 Other Journal Title: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. Partial author list: First Author & Affiliation: Mattler, Uwe; Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany. Other Publishers: Springer. Release Date: 20071210. Correction Date: 20110110. Publication Type: Journal (0100), Peer Reviewed Journal (0110). Format Covered: Print. Document Type: Journal Article. Language: English. Major Descriptor: Apparent Movement; Motion Perception; Priming; Reaction Time; Stimulus Onset. Classification: Sensory Perception (2320). Population: Human (10); Male (30); Female (40). Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older) (300); Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs) (320); Thirties (30-39 yrs) (340). Methodology: Empirical Study; Quantitative Study. References Available: Y. Page Count: 10. Issue Publication Date: Nov, 2007.