ABSTRACT
Two general principles guide the design of our priming experiments. First, there is a very close temporal proximity of the two stimuli. This allows us to pick up highly transient effects that may otherwise dissipate during the interval betwen the prime and the target. Second, we try to eliminate the possibility that the observed priming effects are the products of a conscious, retrospective appreciation of the relationship between the prime and the target. The simple fact that the items are perceived to be related in some way may totally change the way in which subjects respond to the target stimulus, without there being any effect at all on the perceptual processing of the target.
