ABSTRACT

Denkinger, B., & Koutstaal, W. (submitted).  Abstraction across exemplars and processing tasks in object priming: Evidence for rapid response learning and re-learning.

Recent encounters with a stimulus often facilitate or "prime" future responses to the same or similar stimuli.  In a relative size-judgment task of visually presented objects, two major theoretical accounts of these "repetition priming" effects were examined: the "tuning" hypothesis and the response-learning hypothesis.  Replicating previous findings, responses were faster to repeated objects, with greater facilitation for repeated-same than for repeated-different exemplars.  Manipulation of a size referent over experimental trials produced both task-initiated and participant-initiated response changes, both of which led to switch-related reductions in priming.  These reductions generalized to different-exemplars, and generally support the response-learning account.  However, significant recovery of priming was found when post-switch responses were consistent, providing new insight into the mechanisms and flexibility of possible task-specific priming.

KEYWORDS:  response specificity; stimulus specificity; repetition priming; implicit memory; shift costs; instance theory; automatization



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