NEGATIVE PRIMING IN AUDITORY ATTENTION

This article reports 3 experiments that demonstrate and analyze inhibi tory (negative) priming in auditory shadowing. Participants shadowed w ords that were individually presented over headphones, but ignored wor ds simultaneously presented in another voice or another location. The first experiment demonstrated negative priming. Ignored items are shad owed on the next trial more slowly than controls with no history of be ing rejected in the experiment The second experiment showed that the i nhibition lasts for only one item after presentation, followed by faci litation 3 and 5 items later. The third experiment showed that the inh ibitory priming is exactly the same when both presentations are to the same ear as when they are to different ears. Inhibition thus adheres to the item and not to the position in space. Negative priming takes p lace in a modality-audition-that has no peripheral means of excluding unattended material, as vision does by shifting fixation.