Sensitivity of different measures of the visibility of masked primes: Influences of prime-response and prime-target relations

Abstract

Visual masking of primes lowers prime visibility but spares processing of primes as reflected in prime-target congruence and prime-response compatibility effects. However, the question is how to appropriately measure prime visibility. Here, we tested the influence of three procedural variables on prime visibility measures: prime-target similarity, prime-response similarity, and the variability of prime-response mappings. Our results show that a low prime-target similarity is a favorable condition for a prime visibility measure because it increases the sensitivity of this measure in comparison to a high prime-target similarity. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.