Repetition Priming Effects On Temporal Order Perception

Repetition priming effects on temporal order perception are a phenomenon in which a repetition primed stimulus was judged to appear before an unprimed stimulus. The models proposed previously were not adequate in explaining all the empirical data. In order to solve the problem of factorial confusion in experimental methods, this study through 5 substudies including 9 behavioral experiments and an ERP (event-related potential) experiments used a revised experimental design in which subjects were asked to judge the temporal order of the two stimuli that were presented respectively above and below the center of the screen while the prime appeared on the center of the screen, and also used the experimental materials consisted of a pair of figure stimuli: a square and a diamond to systemically investigate repetition priming effects on temporal order perception, and their cognitive mechanism and brain mechanism. The results were as follows: (1) there were significant effects of repetition priming on temporal order perception, which were not the false effects caused by response options; (2) there was a reversal of repetition priming effects under the conditions of the primed stimulus appearing first which was a novel finding, which was very credible and stable; (3) the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception involved decisional response bias; (4) the brain mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception was related mostly to the latencies and amplitudes of N1 and C1, and the amplitude of P2; (5) dual processes and representation matching modulation model, the new model proposed in this study, can integratively explain the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects and their reversal on temporal order perception, which was confirmed by the behavioral and ERP experimental results. Substudy 1 including 3 experiments investigated the influence of repetition priming on figure's temporal order perception. Experiment la employed the revised experimental paradigm of temporal order judgment tasks confirmed that there were significant effects of repetition priming on temporal order perception. According to the range-synthetic model of temporal cognition, Experiment 1b used the tasks of both temporal estimate and temporal order judgment to explore the influence of repetition priming on figure's temporal order perception, whose results indicated that the repetition priming had significant effects on both temporal estimate and temporal order perception. Moreover, there was a reversal of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception in Experiments la and lb -an effect that has not been observed in previous studies. Experiment 1c confirmed the solidity of repetition priming effects and the reliability of their reversal (a novel finding) on figure's temporal order perception in a longer temporal range including the temporal internals between the prime figure and the first-presented figure and between the two target figures.Substudy 2 including 2 experiments investigated the influence of response options on repetition priming effects on temporal order perception. Experiment 2a adopted a ternary temporal order judgment including "a square appeared first", "a diamond appeared first" and "a square and a diamond appeared simultaneously", and the results indicated that there were "true" effects of repetition priming on temporal order perception which did not involve the response bias caused by response options. Experiment 2b explored the influence of the use restriction of "appearing simultaneously" judgment on repetition priming effects on temporal order perception, and the results showed that no more "appearing simultaneously" judgments were found to be statistically significant under nonrestrictive use, in which "doubt" could be expressed by this category. With restrictive use, the "appearing simultaneously" judgment was limited to perceived simultaneity. The results of Experiment 2b demonstrated that the subjects could distinguish the temporal order in the temporal order judgment task, which did not support the theoretical precondition of the response optional bias.Substudy 3 including 2 experiments investigated the influence of decisional response bias on repetition priming effects on temporal order perception. Experiment 3 a adopted two different tasks of temporal order judgment including "which target appeared firstly" and "which target appeared lastly", and the results revealed that there was a significant influence of decisional response bias on repetition priming effects on temporal order perception, which showed that the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception involved decisional response bias. Experiment 3b investigated the two different tasks of temporal order judgment on repetition priming effects on temporal order perception in a longer prime's presentation time to eliminate the perceptual blending, and the results supported the Experiment 3a' conclusion.Substudy 4 including 2 experiments investigated the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception. As the present models can not explain the reversal of repetition priming effects, a new model, dual processes and representation matching modulation model, was proposed in this study to integratively explain the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects and their reversal on temporal order perception. Experiment 4a explored the influence of the prime's presentation position on the reversal of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception, and the results showed that the reversal of repetition priming effects disappeared and the priming effects were positive when the prime was presented in the same position as the primed target. The cuing effect of the prime made subjects reduce or stop the response repress processing on the primed figure, and the activation processing of the prime's presentation and the cuing effect induced by the prime enabled subjects to make the judgment of the primed target appearing first. As a result, the reversal of repetition priming effects disappeared and the dual processes - the theoretical hypothesis of dual processes and representation matching modulation model were confirmed. Experiment 4b explored the influence of the masked prime on the reversal of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception, and the results showed that the reversal of repetition priming effects almost disappeared when the prime was presented in the center of the screen and then was masked. The response repress processing was decreased because of the mismatch between the prime' presentation and the mask's presentation, which made subjects reduce the judgment frequency of the primed target appearing lastly. As a result, the reversal of repetition priming effects become reduced or disappeared and the representation matching modulation - the theoretical hypothesis of dual processes and representation matching modulation model was supported.Substudy 5 including an ERP experiments investigated the brain mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception. Experiment 5 adopted the irrelevant-probe technique and the ERP subtraction technique to remove the ERP overlap caused by the brief inter-stimuli intervals to explore neural mechanisms of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception. The results revealed that repetition priming effects on temporal order perception were related mostly to the amplitude and latency of N1 and the amplitude of P2, and the matching effects were related mostly to the amplitude and latency of C1 and the amplitude of P2. These results provided the neurophysiologic evidence for dual processes and representation matching modulation model.In conclusion, this study with figure materials investigated repetition priming effects on temporal order perception using the valid experimental paradigm and ERP research technique, and the results indicated that there were significant effects of repetition priming on temporal order perception, which were not the false effects caused by response options; the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception involved not only the perceptual processing mechanism but also decisional response bias mechanism; the brain mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception was related mostly to the amplitudes and latencies of N1 and C1 and the amplitude of P2, and dual processes and representation matching modulation model can integratively explain the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects and their reversal on temporal order perception. In theory, this study proposed a new model - dual processes and representation matching modulation model to integratively explain the cognitive mechanism of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception. This model supplied a gap in the previous theories not explaining the reversal of repetition priming effects and was supported by the empirical evidence from two behavioral experiments and an ERP experiment, and so the new model had higher predictive validity and explanatory power. In method, there were three breakthroughs. Firstly, based on previous experimental methods, this study developed a more reasonable experimental method by which the prime was presented on the center of the screen and the two targets appeared respectively above and below the center of the screen which overcome the defect of factorial confusion existing in previous experimental methods. Secondly, this study combined the traditional behavioral method with the new research means - ERP experimental methods and was conducted in two different levels from behavior to neural basis. Lastly, this study introduced the irrelevant-probe technique and the subtraction technique used in other domains that were good for removing the ERP overlap caused by the brief inter-stimuli intervals into the research on repetition priming effects on temporal order perception, which provided the methodological basis for the future research on brain mechanisms. In results, there was a novel and important finding that the influence of repetition priming on temporal order perception depended on the target appearing first, that is, there were repetition priming effects under the conditions of the unprimed stimulus appearing first and there was a reversal of repetition priming effects under the conditions of the primed stimulus appearing first. And this stable and credible phenomenon has not been observed in previous studies. Future research should be done on the multifactorial interaction, unconscious processes, time personality variables, and brain mechanisms, attempting to discover the nature and law of repetition priming effects on temporal order perception and exploring the secrets of human behavior and mind from the all-round, multi-angle point of view.