The Effect of Temporal Uncertainty on Negative Priming

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess whether the temporal uncertainty of stimuli appearance influences negative priming. A simple reaction time measure of temporal uncertainty was introduced and showed that temporal uncertainty varied according to the response-stimulus interval (RSI). Using a design introduced by Conway in 1999 for manipulating RSIs, temporal uncertainty was shown to be measurably different for different RSI conditions, even across conditions which previous research had assumed to be equal in temporal uncertainty. This difference in temporal uncertainty partially accounted for differences in negative priming between conditions. An important implication is that research in negative priming generally should take account of temporal uncertainty, for example, by using the simple reaction time measure used here.