Contrast effects in spontaneous evaluations

A psychophysical account

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6204463
AutoresKarl Christoph Klauer (0000-0003-4004-035X, University of Freiburg), Sarah Teige-Mocigemba, Sarah Teige‐mocigemba (0000-0002-7516-1293, University of Freiburg), Adriaan Spruyt (0000-0002-8387-631X, Ghent University)
Año2009
Volumen96
Número2
Páginas265-287
Fecha de publicación2009-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
EditorialAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/a0013248
PMID19159132
OpenAlexW2090876083
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas20
Referencias citadas24

In the affective-priming paradigm, target stimuli are preceded by evaluatively polarized prime stimuli and then are to be classified as either good or bad as fast as possible. The typical and robust finding is assimilation: Primes facilitate the processing of evaluatively consistent targets relative to evaluatively inconsistent targets. Nevertheless, contrast effects have repeatedly been observed. The authors propose a new psychophysical account of normal (assimilative) and reversed (contrastive) priming effects and test new predictions derived from it in 5 studies: In Studies 1 and 2, the authors' account is shown to provide a better explanation of contrastive effects in a priming paradigm with two primes than the traditional attentional account does. Furthermore, as predicted by the new account, contrast effects emerge at an intermediate stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA, Study 3) and even with short SOAs when target onset takes participants by surprise (Study 4). Finally, the use of extremely valenced primes triggers corrective efforts (Study 5) as predicted. Implications for priming measures of evaluative associations are discussed

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Impression formation · Perception · Priming (agriculture) · Social perception · Stimulus (psychology) · Stimulus onset asynchrony · Surprise · Face Recognition and Perception · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology