DUAL MECHANISMS OF NEGATIVE PRIMING

Three experiments examined whether negative priming is a dually determ ined effect produced by inhibitory mechanisms and by a memorial proces s. Younger adults (Experiment 1) and older adults (Experiments 1-3) we re tested in procedures that varied the likelihood of inducing retriev al of the prior trial. This was done by making test-trial target decod ing difficult (Experiments 1 & 2) or by making prior information usefu l on some nonnegative priming trials (Experiment 3). Younger adults de monstrated negative priming under retrieval and nonretrieval condition s, with patterns of performance indicating different sources of negati ve priming effects. Older adults showed negative priming only under re trieval-inducing conditions, consistent with the view of deficient inh ibitory mechanisms for older adults. The data suggest that contextual variables critically determine whether negative priming is largely due to inhibition or to episodic retrieval.