Subliminal response priming has been considered to operate on several stages,
e.g. perceptual, central or motor stages might be affected. While primes’ impact
on target perception has been clearly demonstrated, semantic response priming
recently has been thrown into doubt (e.g. Klinger, Burton, & Pitts, 2000). Finally, LRP studies have
revealed that subliminal primes evoke motor processes. Yet, the premises for
such prime-evoked motor activation are not settled. A transfer of priming to
stimuli that have never been presented as targets appears particularly
interesting because it suggests a level of processing that goes beyond a
reactivation of previously acquired S-R links. Yet, such transfer has not always
withstood empirical testing. To account for these contradictory results, we
proposed a two-process model (Kunde, Kiesel,
& Hoffmann, 2003): First, participants build up expectations
regarding imperative stimuli for the required responses according to experience
and/or instructions. Second, stimuli that match these “action triggers” directly
activate the corresponding motor responses irrespective of their conscious
identification. In line with these assumptions, recent studies revealed that
non-target primes induce priming when they fit the current task intentions and
when they are expected in the experimental setting