Binocular Rivalry Disrupts Visual Priming

Abstract

Many results implicate perceptual processing in repetition priming, but little is known of potential mechanisms for priming. A new method was used to help determine the processing stage at which priming occurs. Priming pictures were presented under dominance or suppression generated by binocular rivalry. Although low-level, sensory attributes can be processed under rivalry suppression, there is no evidence that repetition priming can be supported by such low-level processing. Priming was found only for stimuli that were processed sufficiently to be identified in the priming stage. The results demonstrate that repetition priming requires processing of stimulus attributes into relatively high-level representations.