Abstract
When a rapidly rotating ring of dots was briefly flashed, observers saw only a solid ring with no discriminable rotation. However, when this stimulus served as a prime that was followed by a target that consisted of a clearly rotating ring of dots, response times (RTs) to report the target’s rotation were shorter when the prime and target directions were congruent than when they were incongruent. In accord with shape priming data, this priming effect increased monotonically with the prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA). The prime also biased the perceived direction of an ambiguous apparent motion target, but only at an intermediate SOA. At the same SOA, we also found that target presentations enabled above-chance discrimination of prime’s rotation direction. These outcomes demonstrate the processing of motion direction information that is not phenomenally represented. They suggest a common mechanism may mediate the priming of RTs by shape and motion, whereas a different mechanism mediates perceptual measures of motion priming.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Anstis, S. M., &Ramachandran, V. S. (1987). Visual inertia in apparent motion.Vision Research,27, 755–764.
Barbur, J. L., Watson, J. D., Frackowiak, R. S., &Zeki, S. (1993). Conscious visual perception without V1.Brain,116, 1293–1302.
Blake, R. (2001). A primer on binocular rivalry, including current controversies.Brain & Mind,2, 5–38.
Blake, R., Ahlstrom, U., &Alais, D. (1999). Perceptual priming by invisible motion.Psychological Science,10, 145–150.
Blake, R., &Logothetis, N. K. (2002). Visual competition.Nature Review Neuroscience,3, 13–21.
Breitmeyer, B. G. (1984).Visual masking. An integrative approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cohen, M. S., Kosslyn, S. M., Breiter, H. C., DiGirolamo, G. J., Thompson, W. L., Anderson, A. K., et al. (1996). Changes in cortical activity during mental rotation.Brain,119, 89–100.
Coltheart, M. (1980). Iconic memory and visible persistence.Perception & Psychophysics,27, 183–228.
DeYoe, E. A., &Van Essen, D. C. (1988). Concurrent processing streams in monkey visual cortex.Trends in Neurosciences,11, 219–226.
DiLollo, V., Enns, J. T., &Rensink, R. A. (2000). Competition for consciousness among visual events: The psychophysics of reentrant visual processes.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,129, 481–507.
Eimer, M., &Schlaghecken, F. (1998). Effects of masked stimuli on motor activation: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,24, 1737–1747.
Fehrer, E., &Raab, D. (1962). Reaction time to stimuli masked by metacontrast.Journal of Experimental Psychology,63, 143–147.
Goebel, R., Khorram-Sefat, D., Muckli, L., Hacker, H., &Singer, W. (1998). The constructive nature of vision: Direct evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of apparent motion and motion imagery.European Journal of Neuroscience,10, 1563–1573.
Groner, R., Groner, M. T., Müller, P., Bischof, W. F., &DiLollo, V. (1993). On the confounding effects of phosphor persistence in oscilloscopic displays.Vision Research,33, 913–917.
Gur, M., &Snodderly, D. M. (1997). A dissociation between brain activity and perception: Chromatically opponent cortical neurons signal chromatic flicker that is not perceived.Vision Research,37, 377–382.
Haynes, J.-D., &Rees, G. (2005). Predicting the orientation of invisible stimuli from activity in human primary visual cortex.Nature Neuroscience,8, 686–691.
He, S., &MacLeod, D. I. A. (2001). Orientation-selective adaptation and tilt after-effect from invisible patterns.Nature,411, 473–476.
Klotz, W., &Neumann, O. (1999). Motor activation without conscious discrimination in metacontrast masking.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,25, 976–992.
Kourtzi, Z. (2004). ‘But still, it moves’.Trends in Cognitive Sciences,8, 47–49.
Lleras, A., &Enns, J. T. (2004). Negative compatibility or object updating? A cautionary tale of mask-dependent priming.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,133, 475–493.
Loftus, G. R., &Masson, M. E. J. (1994). Using confidence intervals in within-subject designs.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,1, 476–490.
Macknik, S. L., &Livingstone, M. S. (1998). Neural correlates of visibility and invisibility in the primate visual system.Nature Neuroscience,1, 144–149.
Marcel, A. J. (1983). Conscious and unconscious perception: Experiments on visual masking and word recognition.Cognitive Psychology,15, 197–237.
Mattler, U. (2003). Priming of mental operations by masked stimuli.Perception & Psychophysics,65, 167–187.
Mattler, U. (2005). Inhibition and decay of motor and nonmotor priming.Perception & Psychophysics,67, 285–300.
Mattler, U. (2006). On the locus of priming and inverse priming effects.Perception & Psychophysics,68,975–9911.
McCollough, C. (1965). Adaptation of edge-detectors in the human visual system.Science,149, 1115–1116.
Milliken, B., Joordens, S., Merikle, P. M., &Seiffert, A. E. (1998). Selective attention: A reevaluation of the implications of negative priming.Psychological Review,105, 203–229.
Neumann, O., &Klotz, W. (1994). Motor responses to nonreportable masked stimuli: Where is the limit of direct parameter specification? In C. Umiltà & M. Moscovitch (Eds.),Attention and performance XV: Conscious and nonconscious information processing (pp. 124–150). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Pantle, A. J., Gallogly, D. P., &Piehler, O. C. (2000). Direction biasing by brief apparent motion stimuli.Vision Research,40, 1979–1991.
Piehler, O. C., &Pantle, A. J. (2001). Direction-specific changes of sensitivity after brief apparent motion stimuli.Vision Research,41, 2195–2205.
Pinkus, A., &Pantle, A. (1997). Probing visual motion signals with a priming paradigm.Vision Research,37, 541–552.
Rajimehr, R. (2005). Unconscious orientation processing.Neuron,41, 663–673.
Ramachandran, V. S., &Anstis, S. M. (1983). Extrapolation of motion path in human visual perception.Vision Research,23, 83–85.
Schmidt, T. (2000). Visual perception without awareness: Priming responses by color. In T. Metzinger (Ed.).Neural correlates of consciousness: Empirical and conceptual questions (pp. 157–169). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Schmidt, T. (2002). The finger in flight: Real-time motor control by visually masked color stimuli.Psychological Science,13, 112–118.
Schoenfeld, M. A., Heinze, H.-J., &Woldorff, M. G. (2002). Unmasking motion-processing activity in human brain area V5/MT1 mediated by pathways that bypass primary visual cortex.Neuroimage,17, 769–779.
Schoenfeld, M. A., Noesselt, T., Poggel, D., Tempelmann, C., Hopf, J.-M., Woldorff, M. G., et al. (2002). Analysis of pathways mediating preserved vision after striate cortex lesions.Annals of Neurology,52, 814–824.
Sereno, A. B., &Maunsell, J. H. R. (1998). Shape selectivity in primate lateral intraparietal cortex.Nature,395, 500–503.
Sincich, L. C., Park, K. F., Wohlgemuth, M. J., &Horton, J. C. (2004). Bypassing V1: A direct geniculate input to area MT.Nature Neuroscience,7, 1123–1128.
Stoerig, P., &Cowey, A. (1997). Blindsight in man and monkey.Brain,120, 535–559.
Taylor, J. G., Schmitz, N., Ziemons, K., Grosse-Ruyken, M.-L., Gruber, O., Hueller-Gaertner, H.-W., et al. (2000). The network of brain areas involved in the motion aftereffect.NeuroImage,11, 257–270.
Tong, F. (2001). Competing theories of binocular rivalry: A possible resolution.Brain & Mind,2, 55–83.
Tong, F. (2003). Primary visual cortex and visual awareness.Nature Reviews Neuroscience,4, 219–229.
Toth, L. J., &Assad, J. A. (2002). Dynamic coding of behaviourally relevant stimuli in parietal cortex.Nature,415, 165–168.
Ungerleider, L. G., &Mishkin, M. (1982). Two cortical visual systems. In D. B. Ingle, M. A. Goodale, & R. J. Q. Mansfield (Eds.),Analysis of visual behavior (pp. 549–586). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vorberg, D., Mattler, U., Heinecke, A., Schmidt, T., &Schwarzbach, J. (2003). Different time courses for visual perception and action priming.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,100, 6275–6280.
Vorberg, D., Mattler, U., Heinecke, A., Schmidt, T., &Schwarzbach, J. (2004). Invariant time course of priming with and without awareness. In C. Kaernbach, E. Schröger, & H. Müller (Eds.),Psychophysics beyond sensation. Laws and invariants of human cognition (pp. 271–288). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Vul, E., &MacLeod, D. I. A. (2006). Contingent aftereffects distinguish conscious and preconscious color processing.Nature Neuroscience,9, 873–874.
Watanabe, T., Nanez, J. E., &Sasaki, Y. (2001) Perceptual learning without perception.Nature,413, 844–848.
Williams, P. E., Mechler, F., Gordon, J., Shapley, R., &Hawken, M. J. (2004). Entrainment to video displays in primary visual cortex of macaque and humans.Journal of Neuroscience,24, 8278–8288.
Williams, Z. M., Elfar, J. C., Eskandar, E. N., Toth, L. J., &Assad, J. A. (2003). Parietal activity and the perceived direction of ambiguous apparent motion.Nature Neuroscience,6, 616–623.
Wolff, P. (1989). Einfluss des maskierten Testreizes auf die Wahlreaktion auf den Maskierreiz bei Metakontrast [Effect of masked stimulus on choice response to the masking stimulus in metacontrast]. Paper presented at the 31st Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, Bamberg, Germany.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mattler, U., Fendrich, R. Priming by motion too rapid to be consciously seen. Perception & Psychophysics 69, 1389–1398 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192954
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192954