Response conflict reverses priming: A replication

Subjects named target words that followed a masked prime word of 33-msec (E xperiments 1A and 1B) or 200-msec (Experiment 2) duration. The target word was either presented alone or accompanied by an interleaved distracter word . Targets presented alone were named more quickly following an identical pr ime than following an unrelated prime (repetition priming). In Experiment 1 A, targets viith distractors were named more slowly following an identical prime than following an unrelated prime (negative priming), replicating Mil liken, Joordens, Merikle, and Seiffert (Psychological Review, 1998). In Exp eriments 1B and 2, repetition priming was reduced, although not reversed, f or targets with distractors. The results of all three experiments are oppos ite to the usual finding of enhanced priming for perceptually degraded targ ets and suggest that response conflict engages retrospective mechanisms tha t counteract the facilitatory effects of priming.