Is response priming based on surface color? Response to Skrzypulec (2021)

TL;DR

This paper examines whether motor response priming by masked color stimuli relies on surface color representations or is driven by local contrast, suggesting priming is based on contrast rather than true color perception.

Contribution

It challenges the assumption that unconscious color priming reflects the same surface color representations as conscious perception, highlighting the role of local contrast instead.

Findings

Priming is driven by local contrast, not surface color.

Masked color primes do not activate color-constant representations.

Response priming by lightness stimuli is influenced by perceived contrast.

Abstract

Skrzypulec (2021) raises the question whether motor activation by masked color primes is based on the same type of color representation as conscious vision. He postulates that the literature on color processing without awareness makes an implicit assumption that "conscious" and "unconscious" color representations have the same properties, in which case priming by masked color stimuli would indeed indicate that the same complex representation of surface color can be conscious as well as unconscious. I review some evidence from response priming by lightness stimuli in the context of a visual illusion that alters the perceived lightness of the primes (Schmidt et al., 2010). Those results clearly show that response priming is not driven by color-constant information but instead by local image contrast, making it unlikely that rapid response activation by color primes is based on a color-constant representation of surface color.