Negative priming and perceptual fluency: More than what meets the eye

In two priming experiments, we manipulated the perceptual quality of the ta rget or the distractor on the prime trial; the stimuli were repeated or nov el. Negative priming was found to be contingent on stimulus repetition, bec ause it was obtained with repeated items but not with novel items. Prime tr ial perceptual degradation modulated negative priming for repeated items bu t had no effect on priming in ignored repetition conditions using novel sti muli. These patterns were obtained even when the effect of perceptual degra dation was (1) greater than the effect of stimulus repetition and (2) great er for novel words than for repeated words. Although stimulus repetition in creases perceptual fluency, the activation of perceptual representations by itself is not sufficient to produce negative priming. Instead, we suggest that negative printing is a manifestation of an activation-sensitive inhibi tory mechanism that functions to reduce response competition.