LE3 .A278 2010

2010

Bleile, Karmen

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

The current study used event- related potential ( ERP) methods with Milliken et al.‟ s ( 1998) single prime procedure to examine the cognitive mechanisms responsible for negative and positive priming effects. In Experiment 1, the pattern of qualitatively different priming effects found previously with this paradigm was observed when response modality was changed from vocal response to keypress. In Experiment 2, the same behavioural task was used in addition to ERP data acquisition. The behavioural results of Experiment 2 did not reach significance, but two ERP responses, the N200 and the P300, did emerge. The N200 was largest for selection trials and the P300 was largest for no- selection trials. Unlike previous studies, these ERP responses were not mediated by repetition. Nevertheless, these results suggest that using the single- prime procedure with ERP recording methods may prove valuable in simplifying the experimental procedure of future studies.

The author retains copyright in this thesis. Any substantial copying or any other actions that exceed fair dealing or other exceptions in the Copyright Act require the permission of the author.

https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:692