Negative priming for spatial location?

Examined negative priming for spatial location in 2 studies. Study 1 involved combinations of target, distractor, or both, across prime and probe, being presented once to each S in a negative priming for spatial location procedure. Specifically, stimuli were presented using an oscilloscope controlled by a computer system, and the fixation display appeared immediately after a foot pedal was depressed. After 500 msec, the prime array was added to the fixation display until the S responded (depressing the key corresponding to the location of the target). In the 1st Exp, the procedure was examined across a number of Ss (12 university students; aged 20–30 yrs). In the 2nd Exp, the procedure was tested over repeated sessions with 1 S (university student; aged 23 yrs) on consecutive days. Study 2 verified the results in 13 university students. The findings suggest that negative priming in the spatial location procedure may be more closely related to inhibition of return, or to the automatic attraction of attention by new objects, than to the concepts of distractor inhibition, episodic retrieval, and feature mismatch which have traditionally been used to explain negative priming for spatial location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)