Visibility, type of masking, prime duration and task as determinants of effects of masked stimuli

可见性、掩蔽类型、黄金持续时间和任务作为掩蔽刺激效果的决定因素

基本信息

批准号：
252287650
负责人：
Professor Dr. Uwe F. Mattler
金额：
--
依托单位：
Abteilung für Experimentelle Psychologie
依托单位国家：
德国
项目类别：
Research Grants
财政年份：
2014
资助国家：
德国
起止时间：
2013-12-31 至 2018-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/252287650?language=en
关键词：
Visibility type masking prime duration

项目摘要

Recent theories state that consciousness is related to the integration and accessibility of information. From this it follows that mental functions exist which do not operate at all or at least operate in an impaired way when consciousness is impaired. More specifically, processing of simple (non-integrated) stimulus features should be independent from consciousness whereas semantic processing of complex (integrated) features should increase with an increasing consciousness of the stimuli. A series of empirical reports support this view. Thus, early perceptual or motor priming effects do not depend on the prime visibility whereas semantic priming effects seem to depend on prime visibility. However, in many studies the manipulation of prime visibility has been confounded with the duration of the primes because trials with short and long prime durations have been compared as unconscious and conscious conditions, respectively. Additionally, semantic studies most often used pattern masking which might produce an artificial correlation between priming effects and prime visibility. Independence of motor priming effects and visibility has been reported frequently from studies that used metacontrast masking. And indeed, our pilot studies show that semantic and motor priming effects depend on prime visibility when pattern masking is used, but not with metacontrast masking. Beyond this, the relation between priming effects and prime visibility could also depend on the processing of the primes which is needed to generate priming effects. The planned project comprises 13 experiments which systematically compare the effects of three different masking procedures (pattern masking, metacontrast, and crowding) when the same stimuli are used in different tasks. Within each experiment, prime visibility is varied by masks of a specific type but with different masking strength and the relationship between priming effects and visibility is recorded. If the processing of the primes in a certain task depends on consciousness of the primes the priming effect should also depend on prime visibility. To grasp also discontinuous relationships, the time that is given to the prime to generate its effects is varied. Functional magnetic resonance imaging is used to examine whether the prime induced cortical activation at later levels of processing in the visual hierarchy is systematically determined by the type of masking procedure used. In this way the expansion of the effects of masked stimuli in the brain and the loci of masking can be directly investigated. The studies of this project contribute to confine the search for the function of consciousness and to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that produce priming effects and the different types of masking effects.

最近的理论指出，意识与信息的整合和可访问性有关。由此可见，当意识受损时，存在根本无法运作或至少以受损方式运作的心理功能。更具体地说，简单（非集成）刺激特征的处理应该独立于意识，而复杂（集成）特征的语义处理应该随着刺激意识的增加而增加。一系列实证报告支持了这一观点。因此，早期知觉或运动启动效应不依赖于主要可见性，而语义启动效应似乎取决于主要可见性。然而，在许多研究中，对素数可见性的操纵与素数的持续时间相混淆，因为短素持续时间和长素数持续时间的试验分别被作为无意识和有意识的条件进行比较。此外，语义研究最常使用模式屏蔽，这可能会在启动效应和启动可见性之间产生人为的相关性。使用元对比掩蔽的研究经常报道运动启动效应和可见度的独立性。事实上，我们的试点研究表明，当使用模式掩蔽时，语义和运动启动效应取决于主要可见性，但与元对比掩蔽无关。除此之外，启动效应和启动效应之间的关系还可能取决于生成启动效应所需的启动处理。计划中的项目包括 13 个实验，系统地比较在不同任务中使用相同刺激时三种不同掩蔽程序（模式掩蔽、元对比度和拥挤）的效果。在每个实验中，初始可见度因特定类型的掩模而变化，但具有不同的掩蔽强度，并且记录初始效果和可见度之间的关系。如果某项任务中素数的处理取决于素数的意识，那么启动效应也应该取决于素数的可见性。为了掌握不连续的关系，赋予素数产生其效果的时间是不同的。功能性磁共振成像用于检查视觉层次中后期处理水平的主要诱导皮层激活是否由所使用的掩蔽程序类型系统地确定。通过这种方式，可以直接研究大脑中掩蔽刺激效应的扩展和掩蔽位点。该项目的研究有助于限制对意识功能的探索，并提高我们对产生启动效应和不同类型掩蔽效应的机制的理解。