Negative-priming-designs: Comparison of different approaches for measuring cognitive inhibition

Ignoring a distracter on a prime trial generally impairs responses to that stimulus on a subsequent probe trial. This so called negative-priming (NP) effect supports the view that the representations of distracting stimuli underly a cognitive inhibition during target selection (Tipper, 1985). Aiming at the optimization of NP designs for analyzing cognitive inhibition the present paper investigates two open questions within this context: Which classical designs using words, letters. or pictures as stimuli are most accepted by subjects and at the same time result in possibly strong NP effects? What is the time course of NP, and at which interstimulus interval (ISI) the maximum is reached? In experiment 1, three "classical" NP designs were compared within one sample of subjects and a picture design was selected as the most suitable one. In experiment 2 the ISI was varied within subjects; the maximal NP effect was found at an ISI of around 1000 ms.