Abstract

This research examined the possible influence of the response bias on the negative repetition effect(NRE) in the perceptually limited situation. An NRE is a phenomenon that target detection is worse in a repeated display condition than that in a nonrepeated display condition(Bjork & Murray, 1977). Eriksen, Morris, Yeh, O'Hara and Durst (1981) suggested that the NRE is caused not by an interactive inhibitory channel process (Bjork & Murray, 1977) but by the response bias to the nonrepeated stimulus displays. In Experiments la and lb, probabilities of the pseudo-target were varied to induce the participants' bias to the nonrepeated stimulus displays. The results of these esperiments, taken together, showed that the magnitudes of the NRE did not change along with the response bias to the nonrepeated display. A multiple regression analysis showed, however, that response bias explained 27% of the variance associated with the NRE. In order to examine the influence of response bias on the NRE in Experiment 2, the participants were additionally asked to perform the confidence rating of their target report. Response bias to the nonrepeated stimulus display was not observed in the low confidence responses, whereas the NRE was substantially observed in high confidence responses. The results of Experiment 2 were not consistent with the response bias hypothesis regarding the NRE.