Cantu, L. E. & Scharff, L. V. (November, 2006). Stereoscopic Semantic Activation Reveals Unconscious Influence on Word Stem Completion. Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society, 11,56.
Abstract: Conscious and unconscious
systems were manipulated in order to examine their interacting
influences on human choice. Using stereoscopic settings, a modification
of Jacobyís (1991) word-stem completion task was constructed
where pairs of target words (instead of a single word) were
stereoscopically presented, one to each eye, below the threshold of
conscious perception. Target pairs had either neutral or
emotionally-charged valence, and were either identical words
(non-dichotomous), semantically and emotionally disparate words
(dichotomous), or letter-string pairs. Each target pair was consciously
pre-masked with either a semantically-related primer word pair, a
semantically-unrelated primer word pair, or an unpronounceable letter
string. Regardless of priming, non-dichotomous, emotionally-charged
conditions led to significantly higher accuracy (word stem completed
with the target word), supporting theories of unconscious influence on
conscious human choice. However, emotionally-charged target words with
consciously-presented, related primers led to the highest accuracy and
fastest response times, illustrating that conscious processes also
influence choice.
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