This is a repository copy of Negative priming 1985 to 2015 : A measure of inhibition, the emergence of alternative accounts, and the multiple process challenge.. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/98888/ Version: Accepted Version Article: D'Angelo, Maria, Thomson, David, Tipper, Steven Paul orcid.org/0000-0002-7066-1117 et al. (1 more author) (2016) Negative priming 1985 to 2015 : A measure of inhibition, the emergence of alternative accounts, and the multiple process challenge. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. pp. 1890-1909. ISSN 1747-0226 https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1173077 Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. 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Journal: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Manuscript ID QJE-SIP 15-336.R1 Manuscript Type: Special Issue Paper Date Su mitted y the Author: 12-Mar-2016 Complete List of Authors: D'Angelo, Maria- Rotman Research Institute, Thomson, Da.e- /ni.ersity of Toronto, Tipper, Ste.en- /ni.ersity of 0or1, Psychology Milli1en, 2ruce- McMaster /ni.ersity, 3eywords: negati.e priming, inhi ition, episodic retrie.al URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pqje Page 1 of 46 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Negative Priming 1985 to 2015 - 1 1 2 3 4 Running Head: NEGATIVE PRI ING 1985 TO 2015 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Negative priming 1985 to 2015: 14 15 A measure of inhibition, the emergence of alternative accounts, and 16 17 18 the multiple process challenge. 19 20 21 22 1 2 3 2 23 aria C. ,-Angelo , ,avid R. Thomson , .teven P. Tipper , and 0ruce illi1en 24 25 26 1 27 Rotman Research Institute at 0aycrest, Toronto 28 2,ept of Psychology, 4niversity of Toronto 29 30 3,ept of Psychology, 4niversity of 5or1 31 32 3,ept of Psychology, Neuroscience 6 0ehaviour, c aster 4niversity 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 7ord Count: 8,802 45 46 47 Corresponding Author: 0ruce illi1en 9milli1e:mcmaster.ca) 48 49 ,epartment of Psychology, Neuroscience 6 0ehaviour 50 51 c aster 4niversity 52 53 54 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8. 2K1 55 56 Phone: 1-905-525-9120 x22381 57 58 59 60 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pqje Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Page 2 of 46 Negative Priming 1985 to 2015 - 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 Abstract 7 8 In this article three generations of authors describe the bac1ground to the original article; the 9 10 11 subsequent emergence of vigorous debates concerning Ahat negative priming actually reflects, 12 13 Ahere radically different accounts based on memory retrieval Aere proposed; and a re-casting of 14 15 the conceptual issues underlying studies of negative priming. 7hat started as a simple 16 17 18 observation 9sloAed RTs) and mechanism 9distractor inhibition) appears noA to be best 19 20 explained by a multiple mechanism account involving both episodic binding and retrieval 21 22 23 processes as Aell as an inhibitory process. Emerging evidence from converging techniques such 24 25 as f RI, and especially EEG, is beginning to identify these different processes. The past 30 26 27 years of negative priming experiments has revealed the dynamic and complex cognitive 28 29 30 processes that mediate Ahat appear to be apparently simple behavioural effects. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pqje Page 3 of 46 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Negative Priming 1985 to 2015 - 3 1 2 3 4 Negative priming 1985 to 2015: 5 6 A measure of inhibition, the emergence of alternative accounts, and 7 8 the multiple process challenge 9 10 11 12 The initial research issue concerned hoA action can be selectively directed toAards a 13 14 relevant obBect in complex environments containing other obBects competing for the control of 15 16 17 action. One solution that Aould enable action to be directed toAards an appropriate obBect at the 18 19 right moment in time involves active inhibition of competing distractor representations. It Aas 20 21 proposed that this inhibition could be observed by presenting a previous distractor as a target 22 23 24 obBect shortly afterAards. If response to a target that Aas just previously a distractor requires 25 26 access to recently inhibited information, then responses ought to be sloAed. This inhibitory 27 28 effect Aas termed negative priming 9Tipper, 1985). 29 30 31 32 There has been extensive research on the topic of negative priming over the past three 33 34 decades, and several excellent revieAs of the negative priming 9NP) literature 9e.g., Cox, 1995; 35 36 ay, Kane 6 Hasher, 1995; ayr 6 0uchner, 2007). In particular, a very recent revieA by 37 38 39 Crings, .chneider and Cox 92015) has carefully considered research conducted over the 20 years 40 41 subsequent to the tAo revieAs published in 1995. Therefore Ahen as1ed by the current editor of 42 43 EFEP to Arite an article for a special issue, it Aas not clear Ahat contribution this paper could 44 45 46 ma1e. A comprehensive revieA of the literature Aould be someAhat redundant in light of the 47 48 excellent revieA published recently 9Crings et al., 2015). Hence this article aims instead to 49 50 51 provide an historical and personal bac1ground concerning the emergence of the 1985 paper, a 52 53 brief summary of the emergence of alternative accounts, and a discussion of hoA the challenge 54 55 of an effect driven by multiple processes might be met. 56 57 58 59 60 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pqje Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Page 4 of 46 Negative Priming 1985 to 2015 - 4 1 2 3 4 Negative priming: A measure of inhibitory selection processes 5 6 7 7hen Tipper applied to do his Ph, at Oxford 4niversity he Aas interested in the 8 9 problem of selection-for-action. That is, Aith complex perceptual inputs Ahere many obBects 10 11 12 could be present and competing for the control of action, hoA Aas action directed to the 13 14 appropriate obBect at the appropriate moment in timeG This Aas of course a long-standing issue 15 16 9e.g., 0roadbent, 1958) and the dominant vieA at that time Aas the spotlight account. The basic 17 18 19 idea Aas that early perceptual inputs Aere represented in parallel. An attentional spotlight could 20 21 then move across a map of these inputs, and facilitate the processing of stimuli that it highlighted. 22 23 There Aere tAo salient features of this model: first, competing internal representations of the 24 25 26 distractor obBects Aere presumed to decay passively, and second, the spotlight Aas presumed to 27 28 be spatial in nature, moving from one location to another. 29 30 31 HoAever, Tipper Aondered Ahether these properties of the spotlight account Aere correct, 32 33 34 in particular Ahether there could be a dual selection process. That is, rather than target stimulus 35 36 activation being increased by the spotlight and distractor representations passively decaying in 37 38 activity, perhaps distractors Aere actively inhibited. Certainly this dual process model, 39 40 41 excitation of the target representations and simultaneous inhibition of competing distractors, 42 43 Aould be much more efficient, better explaining the rapidity Aith Ahich selection could be 44 45 46 achieved; and of course it better matched the building bloc1s of interactions betAeen excitation 47 48 and inhibition in the brain. 49 50 51 Curiously, after arriving in Oxford he initially forgot about the idea of active inhibition of 52 53 distracting information. Rather, Tipper became intrigued by the priming literature. Attending to 54 55 56 a stimulus could produce positive priming effects, facilitating processing of the same or a 57 58 59 60 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pqje Page 5 of 46 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Negative Priming 1985 to 2015 - 5 1 2 3 4 semantically related stimulus 9e.g., Carr, cCauley, .perber 6 Parmelee, 1982; eyer, 5 6 .chvandeldt 6 Ruddy, 1975). .uch observations proved to be useful for models such as 7 8 spreading activation in semantic netAor1s. HoAever, Ahat he found especially intriguing Aas 9 10 11 the Aor1 of Tony arcel Aho Aas reporting demonstrations of subliminal priming effects 12 13 9 arcel, 1983). That is, a prime stimulus such as a Aord could be pattern mas1ed so that 14 15 participants Aere unaAare of its identity, but nevertheless it could still produce semantic priming 16 17 18 effects on a subsequently presented Aord. These observations supported ideas of sophisticated 19 20 processing, such as reading for meaning, Aithout conscious aAareness 9e.g., ,ixon, 1971). 21 22 23 0ut Tipper noted a gap in the mar1et, Ahere he thought he might get a publication, and 24 25 26 maybe even a Ph,.