Different priming effects of empathy on neural processing associated with firsthand pain and nonpain perception

Abstract. Playing a musical instrument professionally has been shown to lead to structural and functional neural adaptations, making musicians valuable subjects for neuroplasticity research. Here, we follow the hypothesis that specific musical demands further shape neural processing. To test this assumption, we subjected groups of professional drummers, professional woodwind players, and nonmusicians to pure tone sequences and drum sequences in which infrequent anticipations of tones or drum beats had been inserted. Passively listening to these sequences elicited a mismatch negativity to the temporally deviant stimuli which was greater in the musicians for tone series and particularly large for drummers for drum sequences. In active listening conditions drummers more accurately and more quickly detected temporally deviant stimuli.

Download Full-text

The Direction of Affective Priming as a Function of Trait Anxiety When Naming Target Words With Regular and Irregular Pronunciation

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.51.3.180 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 180-190 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Michael P. Berner ◽

Markus A. Maier

Keyword(s):

Trait Anxiety ◽

Reading Aloud ◽

Naming Task ◽

Affective Priming ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Expected Effect ◽

Negative Affective Priming ◽

Whole Word ◽

German Data ◽

Target Words

Abstract. Results from an affective priming experiment confirm the previously reported influence of trait anxiety on the direction of affective priming in the naming task ( Maier, Berner, & Pekrun, 2003 ): On trials in which extremely valenced primes appeared, positive affective priming reversed into negative affective priming with increasing levels of trait anxiety. Using valenced target words with irregular pronunciation did not have the expected effect of increasing the extent to which semantic processes play a role in naming, as affective priming effects were not stronger for irregular targets than for regular targets. This suggests the predominant operation of a whole-word nonsemantic pathway in reading aloud in German. Data from neutral priming trials hint at the possibility that negative affective priming in participants high in trait anxiety is due to inhibition of congruent targets.

Download Full-text

Combining the Post-Cue Task and the Perceptual Identification Task to Assess Parallel Activation and Mutual Facilitation of Related Primes and Targets

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000396 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

pp. 84-97 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Demian Scherer ◽

Dirk Wentura

Keyword(s):

Semantic Priming ◽

Stimulus Onset ◽

The Other ◽

Perceptual Identification ◽

Identification Task ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Parallel Activation ◽

Prime Target

Abstract. Recent theories assume a mutual facilitation in case of semantic overlap for concepts being activated simultaneously. We provide evidence for this claim using a semantic priming paradigm. To test for mutual facilitation of related concepts, a perceptual identification task was employed, presenting prime-target pairs briefly and masked, with an SOA of 0 ms (i.e., prime and target were presented concurrently, one above the other). Participants were instructed to identify the target. In Experiment 1, a cue defining the target was presented at stimulus onset, whereas in Experiment 2 the cue was not presented before the offset of stimuli. Accordingly, in Experiment 2, a post-cue task was merged with the perceptual identification task. We obtained significant semantic priming effects in both experiments. This result is compatible with the view that two concepts can both be activated in parallel and can mutually facilitate each other if they are related.

Download Full-text

Do I Shoot Faster Because I Am Thinking about an Outgroup or a Threatening Outgroup?

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000255 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 29-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jessica Mange ◽

Keren Sharvit ◽

Nicolas Margas ◽

Cécile Sénémeaud

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Target Group ◽

Main Study ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Males And Females

Abstract. This research examines if aggressive responses through a shooter bias are systematically generated by priming outgroups or if a threat stereotypically associated with the primed outgroup is required. First, a pilot study identified outgroups stereotypically associated and not associated with threat. Afterwards, the main study included a manipulation of target group accessibility – ingroup versus nonthreatening outgroup versus threatening outgroup. Following exposure to primes of the group categories, the participants in all conditions played a shooter game in which the targets were males and females with ambiguous ethnicity and religion. Results demonstrated that while only priming of an outgroup stereotypically associated with threat elicits aggressive responses, priming of both nonthreatening and threatening outgroups leads to an increase in the ability to distinguish between stimuli compared to ingroup priming. These effects are discussed in terms of priming effects, dimensions of threat, and possible interpretations of this ability increase.

Download Full-text

Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000019 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 131-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Catharina Casper ◽

Klaus Rothermund ◽

Dirk Wentura

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Context Information ◽

Decision Task ◽

Social Categories ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Stereotype Activation ◽

Social Stereotypes ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Automatic Activation ◽

Mental Schemas

Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e.g., Bavarians – beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a marquee) but not for nonfitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a shop). Findings indicate that social stereotypes are organized as specific mental schemas that are triggered by a combination of category and context information.

Download Full-text

Masked Translation Priming Effects With Highly Proficient Simultaneous Bilinguals

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000013 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 98-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

Jon Andoni Duñabeitia ◽

Manuel Perea ◽

Manuel Carreiras

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Hierarchical Model ◽

Priming Effect ◽

Masked Priming ◽

The Other ◽

Memory Organization ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Bilingual Memory ◽

Translation Priming ◽

Masked Translation Priming

One essential issue for models of bilingual memory organization is to what degree the representation from one of the languages is shared with the other language. In this study, we examine whether there is a symmetrical translation priming effect with highly proficient, simultaneous bilinguals. We conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment with cognate and noncognate translation equivalents. Results showed a significant masked translation priming effect for both cognates and noncognates, with a greater priming effect for cognates. Furthermore, the magnitude of the translation priming was similar in the two directions. Thus, highly fluent bilinguals do develop symmetrical between-language links, as predicted by the Revised Hierarchical model and the BIA+ model. We examine the implications of these results for models of bilingual memory.

Download Full-text

What Does It Take to Activate Stereotypes? Simple Primes Don’t Seem Enough

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000183 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 187-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Florian Müller ◽

Klaus Rothermund

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Semantic Priming ◽

Response Priming ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Stereotype Activation

According to social cognition textbooks, stereotypes are activated automatically if appropriate categorical cues are processed. Although many studies have tested effects of activated stereotypes on behavior, few have tested the process of stereotype activation. Blair and Banaji (1996) demonstrated that subjects were faster to categorize first names as male or female if those were preceded by gender congruent attribute primes. The same, albeit smaller, effects emerged in a semantic priming design ruling out response priming by Banaji and Hardin (1996) . We sought to replicate these important effects. Mirroring Blair and Banaji (1996) we found strong priming effects as long as response priming was possible. However, unlike Banaji and Hardin (1996) , we did not find any evidence for automatic stereotype activation, when response priming was ruled out. Our findings suggest that automatic stereotype activation is not a reliable and global phenomenon but is restricted to more specific conditions.

Download Full-text

The Time Course of the Aversive Conflict Signal

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000271 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 30-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Julia Fritz ◽

Gesine Dreisbach

Keyword(s):

Time Course ◽

Strong Support ◽

Short Soas ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Presentation Time ◽

Psychological Evidence ◽

Study Participants ◽

Direct Investigation

The idea that conflicts are aversive signals recently has gained strong support by both physiological as well as psychological evidence. However, the time course of the aversive signal has not been subject to direct investigation. In the present study, participants had to judge the valence of neutral German words after being primed with conflict or non-conflict Stroop stimuli in three experiments with varying SOA (200 ms, 400 ms, 800 ms) and varying prime presentation time. Conflict priming effects (i.e., increased frequencies of negative judgments after conflict as compared to non-conflict primes) were found for SOAs of 200 ms and 400 ms, but absent (or even reversed) with a SOA of 800 ms. These results imply that the aversiveness of conflicts is evaluated automatically with short SOAs, but is actively counteracted with prolonged prime presentation.

Download Full-text