Different Time Courses for Visual Perception and Action Priming — TEI-tagged view

Dirk Vorberg, Uwe Mattler, Armin Heinecke, Thomas Schmidt, Jens Schwarzbach · 2003 · neuroscience · doi:10.1073/pnas.0931489100 · full text at the source · TEI xml · tagged edition · index · concepts · authors
Where this record's text came from. faceted 2026-08 by reading the locally held text (html); every evidence string verified as an exact substring of that text before merging. Claim type coded 'existence' for the headline dissociation (priming occurs, with an invariant time course, for primes that cannot be reported). The paper also has a modelling half - 'We propose a model that provides a quantitative account of priming effects on response speed and accuracy.' - which the single-slot method field cannot show alongside the psychophysical experiments; the model's slope prediction was additionally checked by Monte Carlo simulation. Two further explicit contrast claims (against fast-guessing and against the prime-modulates-mask-processing hypothesis) were left out of claim relations because their targets appear only as numbered references, with no author named in the body text. TEXT PROVENANCE, 2026-08-15: the text now staged for this record was re-fetched from the PMC article page (PMC156362) on 2026-08-14, 5,567 words. IT IS NOT THE COPY THE TAGS WERE READ FROM. Of the 13 evidence strings on this record, 8 were located verbatim in it and carry anchors; 5 were not, and remain unanchored because the copy they were read from is not held. The 5 that do not resolve are all from the discussion and the modelling sections. The comparison covers quoted passages only: it says nothing about the passages we did not quote from. Update, 18 September 2026: the counts above are out of date - today all 31 of this record's quotes are in the staged text and anchored.
The quality of the text these quotes were cut from. operator-codes-not-extractable (INVISIBLE TO THE '(cid:NN)' CENSUS): 144 Highwire operator codes in an internal file (19 distinct, commonest /H11005) - '/H11005' is '=' and '/H11003' is a multiplication sign. THE CODE IS FUSED TO THE NUMBER THAT FOLLOWS IT, so 'M /H1100520.3' is 'M = 20.3' and a reader sees a garbage token where the relation was. THIS IS THE SAME FAULT AS '(cid:NN)' IN A DIFFERENT SPELLING - a glyph index with no ToUnicode map, written in Highwire's encoding instead of decimal - so every damage count that greps '(cid:' scores this record ZERO. 24 live quotes, 2 carrying a code - AND EVERY ONE OF THEM IS IN content tags statistics, THE LAYER WHERE THE OPERATOR IS THE CLAIM. Across the three affected records that is 9 hits out of 9.
Some words in these quotes contain the wrong character. The PDF this text was extracted from substituted 8 characters inside a word — a currency sign or a stray accent where a letter pair belongs, as in signi¢cantly for significantly, or a single ligature glyph, as in confidence. They are valid characters in the wrong place, so they survive every encoding check. The quotes keep them for the same reason as above, and a search of this page will not find the affected words.
1 quote on this page breaks a word across a line. The PDF this text was extracted from hyphenated a word at the end of a printed line — adversar- ial, repre- sentations — and the extractor kept the hyphen and the space. The quotes keep them because a quote is reproduced exactly or it proves nothing: the break is the typesetter’s, not the author’s. A search of this page will not find the affected words.
Other fields define these differently the same word, defined another way in another discipline
awareness 3 fields · perception 3 fields · priming 2 fields
Tags on this paper every tag the record carries, whether or not the words occur in the text below — a number is how many papers in the corpus carry that tag; a tag with no number is unique to this paper
response priming3 masked priming11 metacontrast masking2 action priming visual awareness3 SOA5 priming50 recognition accuracy experiment113

Our tag layer for this paper

Priming analysis (Sivroni & Stark meta-disciplinary definition; cited to Sivroni et al. 2023)
Three characteristics: A · association S · secondariness M · modulation
P · primea metacontrast-masked prime shape, not reliably consciously perceived
T · targeta target requiring a speeded motor response
B · baselineresponse following an incongruent or neutral prime
E · priming effectresponse time and motor activation modulated by the masked prime, growing with prime-target interval
A · associationcongruent/incongruent
Cross-disciplinary analysis
content-tags & facets: phenomenon · claim-type · cross-domain-transfer · mechanism · claim-relation · replication-status · limitation — grounded in the full text
phenomenonmasked response (action) priming— “In the experiments reported here, we measured the amount of priming from metacontrast-masked stimuli while manipulating the temporal dynamics of conscious perception.”
claim-typeexistence— “We observed priming with identical time course for reportable and invisible prime stimuli, despite qualitative changes in the masking time course.”
method — evidence— “Masking and priming were studied in tasks that differed only with respect to which stimulus serves as target, keeping stimulus conditions identical.”
extends the neural accumulator model of Hanes and Schall— “It is similar to the neural accumulator model of Hanes and Schall (26) but includes saturation in the stochastic accumulation process”claim_relations[0]
contradicts Milner and Goodale's theory of separate perception and action systems— “These findings do not agree with central notions of Milner and Goodale ’s theory (3), such as the role of color processing in the action system and the importance of hard-wired connections to effectors”claim_relations[1]
builds-on Macknik and Livingstone's single-cell observation of V1 after-discharge— “In single-cell recordings, Macknik and Livingstone (40) have observed an after-discharge of cells in V1 some 100 ms after prime offset, which seems crucial for con- scious perception because it is suppressed when a mask follows”claim_relations[2]
senseTHE DOUBLE DISSOCIATION ITSELF, and it is two CURVES rather than two conditions: `within the SOA range from 42 to 98 ms: the amount of priming INCREASED, but recognition accuracy DETERIORATED with SOA`. No level of invisibility is asserted anywhere - the argument is carried entirely by the opposite slopes, which is the criterion Schmidt2011 later proposed as a replacement for requiring zero sensitivity— “For 42-ms primes and masks, there was a remarkable double dissociation within the SOA range from 42 to 98 ms: the amount of priming increased, but recognition accuracy deteriorated with SOA”senses[0]
sense`different temporal laws` - the general form of the claim, and it is a statement about SHAPES rather than about magnitudes: conscious perception and unconscious behavioural effects of the same masked stimuli do not merely differ in size, they are governed by different functions of time. Seventh record this sitting where a time course is the load-bearing variable, and the first where two time courses ARE the finding— “Over a wide range of time courses, we show that conscious perception and unconscious behavioral effects of masked visual stimuli obey different temporal laws”senses[1]
senseSUBLIMINAL IN WHICH RESPECT - a precision most records in this corpus do not make: `prime stimuli were not subliminal in the sense that their presence or absence could not be detected, but the critical prime feature remained perfectly invisible`. Something was plainly there to be seen; the attribute that did the priming was not. `Subliminal` is a predicate of a FEATURE here, not of a stimulus, and the difference decides what the effect is evidence for— “Note that prime stimuli were not subliminal in the sense that their presence or absence could not be detected, but the critical prime feature remained perfectly invisible”senses[2]
sensethe priming time course is INDIFFERENT to whether the prime could be reported: `We observed priming with identical time course for reportable and invisible prime stimuli, despite qualitative changes in the masking time course.` The masking function changes shape - type A to type B - and the priming function does not follow it. That is a stronger result than a difference in size at one delay, because it survives a change in the shape of the other curve— “We observed priming with identical time course for reportable and invisible prime stimuli, despite qualitative changes in the masking time course”senses[3]
controlthe slope prediction from the mean-process approximation was re-derived by MONTE CARLO SIMULATION of the stochastic process — held — rules out that the analytic result is an artefact of the mean-process approximation and does not hold for the stochastic process it approximates— “Because there is no guarantee that results based on the mean process approximation are close to those for the stochastic process (27), we checked the slope prediction by Monte Carlo simulation.”controls[0]
controlpriming time courses were compared under two different masking types — held — rules out that masking and priming reflect the SAME underlying process - a dissociation between the two time courses cannot be produced by a single mechanism— “Such a dissociation cannot be accounted for by assuming that masking and priming reflect the same underlying process (see Supporting Text II).”controls[1]
evidence status notethe neural accumulator model of Hanes and Schall — QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted.— “It is similar to the neural accumulator model of Hanes and Schall (26) but includes saturation in the stochastic accumulation process”claim_relations[0]
evidence status noteMilner and Goodale's theory of separate perception and action systems — QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted.— “These findings do not agree with central notions of Milner and Goodale ’s theory (3), such as the role of color processing in the action system and the importance of hard-wired connections to effectors”claim_relations[1]
evidence status noteMacknik and Livingstone's single-cell observation of V1 after-discharge — QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted.— “In single-cell recordings, Macknik and Livingstone (40) have observed an after-discharge of cells in V1 some 100 ms after prime offset, which seems crucial for con- scious perception because it is suppressed when a mask follows”claim_relations[2]
differs inaction priming —distinct-from→ visual awareness — THEIR TIME COURSES - measured under the same conditions, on the same stimuli, and found to obey different temporal laws. Over 42 to 98 ms priming rises while recognition falls, so neither can be a noisier reading of the other— “We manipulated the visibility of masked stimuli and contrasted it with their influence on the speed of motor actions, comparing the temporal dynamics of visual awareness in metacontrast masking with that of action priming under the same conditions”— “comparing the temporal dynamics of visual awareness in metacontrast masking with that of action priming”concept_edges[0]
noteaction priming —distinct-from→ visual awareness — THE PAPER'S RESULT, and the empirical basis for the criterion Schmidt2011 proposes eight years later. Confidence 0.95 - the contrast is the study's design, stated in its own summary of what it did.— “We manipulated the visibility of masked stimuli and contrasted it with their influence on the speed of motor actions, comparing the temporal dynamics of visual awareness in metacontrast masking with that of action priming under the same conditions”concept_edges[0]
weightaction priming —distinct-from→ visual awareness — 0.95concept_edges[0]
effect directionSOA —causes→ priming — increases
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concept_edges[1]
noteSOA —causes→ priming — Half of the dissociation. Recorded separately from the visibility half so that the two directions are queryable independently - a corpus that stored only 'there was a double dissociation' could not answer which way each curve went.
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concept_edges[1]
weightSOA —causes→ priming — 0.9
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concept_edges[1]
effect directionSOA —causes→ recognition accuracy — reduces
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concept_edges[2]
noteSOA —causes→ recognition accuracy — The other half, and the reason the pair is a dissociation rather than a correlation: the SAME manipulation moves the two measures in OPPOSITE directions over the same interval.
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concept_edges[2]
weightSOA —causes→ recognition accuracy — 0.9
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concept_edges[2]
outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation)control — heldcontrols[0]
outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation)control — heldcontrols[1]
evidence status notelimitation — QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted.
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
limitations[0]
evidence status notelimitation — QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted.
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
limitations[1]
replicationuntested
limitationThe findings hold only for the early (under 100 ms) time range studied; priming in other time ranges appears to follow different laws.
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
limitations[0]
limitationThe proposed accumulator model is not the only account compatible with the data; other saturating or leaky models might also fit.
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
limitations[1]
Content tags
content-observations: finding · quantity · variable · definition · key-term — grounded in the full text
findingmasked response priming increased with SOA from 42 to 98 ms while prime recognition fell
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content_tags.findings[0]
findingpriming can occur without the prime being consciously seen
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content_tags.findings[1]
key-termsresponse priming, metacontrast, time course, prime, awareness, motor, perception
Concepts
terms this paper carries, each with the sentence it was cut from — the layer that joins one paper to another. Terms with no quote yet are on CONCEPTS.html.
conceptresponse priming
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concepts[0]
conceptmetacontrast masking
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concepts[2]
conceptaction priming — not defined in this paper's own words; the effect: a masked prime speeding a motor response, measured against the visibility of the same prime under the same conditions - and the paper's claim is that the two obey different temporal laws
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concepts[3]
conceptvisual awareness — not defined in this paper's own words; the direct measure - prime recognition across a range of SOAs - and the curve that DETERIORATES over the same interval in which priming grows
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concepts[4]
conceptSOA — not defined in this paper's own words; the axis the whole result lives on: within 42 to 98 ms the amount of priming rises while recognition accuracy falls, and neither number means anything without it
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concepts[5]
conceptpriming — not defined in this paper's own words; the bare form, and the one the RESULT sentence uses - the paper argues about 'action priming' and 'response priming' and reports the dissociation with the plain word
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concepts[6]
conceptrecognition accuracy — not defined in this paper's own words; the visibility curve, named as it is measured: the proportion of primes correctly identified, falling across the same SOA range in which priming rises
Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher.
concepts[7]
Statistics — cross-field join keys
field-invariant statistical terms, used in their statistical sense (gated on a number / symbol / test). A p-value or a standard deviation means the SAME thing in physics, biology, psychology and sociology — so these are the strongest cross-field join keys. Grounded verbatim.
ANOVA F
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content_tags.statistics[0]
standard-error SE as written: SE
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content_tags.statistics[2]

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