Proactive and reactive sequential effects on selective attention

• ERPs were collected for prime and target windows in a primed dichotic listening task.
• Ignoring a syllable throughout the trial increased prime window negativity.
• Changing from ignoring to attending a syllable increased target window negativity.
• Prime processing inhibits the prime representation, causing a bias for target processing.
• Target processing varies in conflict according to whether the bias is followed.

Sequences of events can affect selective attention either through proactive mechanisms, through reactive mechanisms, or through a combination of the two. The current study examined electrophysiological responses to both prime and target stimuli in a primed dichotic listening task. Each trial presented a distractor prime syllable followed by two simultaneous syllables, and participants were asked to report one of the simultaneous syllables. Trials where the participant reported the non-primed syllable showed more negative event-related potentials at prime presentation, which may indicate inhibition of the prime representation. Trials where the participant reported the primed syllable showed more negative event-related potentials at target presentation, which may indicate cognitive conflict and effortful response selection. In context of current theories, the data suggest that the interplay of a proactive inhibition bias and a reactive potential for conflict is involved in causing sequential effects on selective attention mechanisms.