Negative priming in a gender decision task and in a semantic categorization task

In three experiments, we tested the hypothesis that negative priming (NP) c an occur without prime or target selection, when conflicting properties are associated with the prime and the target, and when the experimental condit ions allow the encoding of the target as a separate episode from the prime. These predictions were confirmed in Experiment 1, using a gender decision task. Responses were slower when prime and target had the same gender than when they had different genders, with an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of 6 00 ms but not with an ISI of 25 ms. Experiment 2 eliminated a possible expl anation of the NP obtained in Experiment 1, in terms of response inhibition during the prime processing. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated the replic ability and the generality of our NP, in a semantic categorization task. Em pirical and theoretical consequences of our results for studies using the p riming paradigm are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.