Negative priming
It falls under the category of priming, which refers to the change in the response towards a stimulus due to a subconscious memory effect.
Increased load on working memory can in turn result in slower perceptual processing leading to delayed reaction.
When we pay attention to a particular stimulus, we perceive other stimuli surrounding the target as distractors in order to help focus.
This inhibition also impairs the processing of an appropriate response to the new target stimulus and results in greater reaction time.
This model accounts for negative priming only when the stimuli are repetitively ignored as distractors during a goal directed behavior of selecting the target stimulus.
This model does not support negative priming effects found in cases short of goal directed behavior.
Another issue is that negative priming effects have been found to be long-term contradicting to the proposed transient residual inhibition.
This is called Simon effect, which refers our innate tendency to respond faster and more accurately when stimuli occur in the same location.
It is based on the assumption that negative priming is caused only at the moment of response to a stimulus that was previously considered distractor.
The temporal discrimination model points to this ambiguity as the cause of slowed categorization of the stimulus leading to negative priming effect.
Like feature mismatch hypothesis, this model also claims that negative priming is not due to selective attention of the target or the inhibition of the distractor.
This model argues that "negative priming is an emergent consequence of a discrimination process that is inherent to memory retrieval".
The stimulus presented varied from objects or symbols in visual field to human voices or artificial sounds.
[1] Evidence for negative priming has also been found across various modes of response including vocal naming, manual key press, and reaching.
More globally accepted research is needed to determine concrete RSI data and establish short-term and long-term negative priming limits.
Neurological evidence of negative priming effects is being researched to help understand the physiological aspects and to develop more accurate models.
The most common method to find such neurological evidence is by neuroimaging the brain using fMRI while subjects go through experiments of tasks that prompt negative priming effects.
[15] The left anterolateral temporal cortex was found to be directly related to the magnitude of negative priming effect.
The inferior parietal cortex activated whenever attention shifted from the distractor to target stimulus or vice versa.
Similarly, evidences for semantic representations and temporal lobe activations are used to support the episode retrieval model.
Whether the cingulate cortex is directly involved in negative priming processes or due to the contrast between congruent and mismatching stimuli is still up for debate.
Currently, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Tourette syndrome are being studied with reference to negative priming.
Knowledge about the physiological basis of negative priming can also help in designing therapies or treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders.
Among the four theories, the feature mismatch hypothesis and the temporal discrimination model lack solid evidence and are inadequate.
[1] The episode retrieval model is gaining more support for the memory based negative priming but lacks in its explanation of the association tags.
Perhaps, further research exploring both these models may help to better understand the role of negative priming in attention, memory and cognition.
