Consciousness

and
Cognition
Consciousness and Cognition 13 (2004) 138157
www.elsevier.com/locate/concog

Unconscious priming by color and form: Dierent

processes and levels
Bruno G. Breitmeyer,a,b,* Haluk Ogmen,b,c and Jian Chenc
a

b
c

Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5022, USA

Center for Neuro-Engineering and Cognitive Science, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5022, USA
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5022, USA
Received 29 January 2003

Abstract
Using a metacontrast masking paradigm, prior studies have shown (a) that a targets color information
and form information, can be processed without awareness and (b) that unconscious color processing
occurs at early, wavelength-dependent levels in the cortical information processing hierarchy. Here we used
a combination of paracontrast and metacontrast masking techniques to explore unconscious color and
form priming eects produced by blue, green, and neutral stimuli. We found that color priming in normal
observers is signicantly reduced when an additional paracontrast mask precedes the target at optimal
masking SOAs. However, no reduction of form-priming eects was obtained at similar optimal paracontrast SOAs. We conclude that unconscious color priming depends on an early, wavelength- or stimulusdependent response of color neurons located at early cortical levels whereas unconscious form priming
occurs at later levels.
2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Color; Consciousness; Form; Metacontrast; Paracontrast; Processing levels; Reaction time; Visual masking

1. Introduction
In recent years major topics in visual cognition and neuroscience have concerned the distinction between unconscious and conscious information processing and the types and levels of
*

Corresponding author. Fax: 1-713-743-8588.

E-mail address: brunob@uh.edu (B.G. Breitmeyer).

1053-8100/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.concog.2003.07.004

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139

brain activity corresponding to them (Crick & Koch, 1998; de Gelder, de Haan, & Heywood,
2001; Kihlstrom, 1996; Kreiman, Fried, & Koch, 2002; Leopold & Logothetis, 1996; Metzinger, 2000; Milner & Goodale, 1995; Weiskrantz, 1997; Zeki, 1997). A useful way to address
these concerns is to study neurological patients who have clear decits in visual consciousness
while still being able to use stimulus attributes such as shape, color, and motion to guide
behavioral responses (de Gelder et al., 2001; Milner & Goodale, 1995; Weiskrantz, 1997).
Another way is to use normal, intact observers whose conscious awareness of stimulus attributes is suppressed by visual masks without, however, suppressing information that can be
made available to systems relying on unconsciously processed information (Ansorge, Klotz, &
Neumann, 1998; Dolan, 2002; Esteves & Ohman, 1994; Klotz & Wol, 1995; Morris & Dolan,
2001; Neumann & Klotz, 1994). For example, when a masked target-prime and a following
mask have congruent shapes, e.g., a square target followed by a square mask, choice reaction
times (CRTs) to the mask shape are lower than when they are incongruent, e.g., a square
target followed by a diamond-shaped mask (Ansorge et al., 1998; Klotz & Wol, 1995;
Neumann & Klotz, 1994). Similar CRT dierences were recently reported when color was used
as the relevant stimulus attribute, e.g., when a green target was followed by a green mask as
compared to when the same target was followed by a red (Ro, Singhal, Breitmeyer, &
Garcia, in preparation; Schmidt, 2000, 2002) or a blue mask (Breitmeyer, Ro, &
Singhal, in press).
It is unclear what kinds of processes in normal observers underlie unconscious priming eects
or at what levels they reside. There is evidence that color and form to large extent are processed
separately in cortical pathways (Desimone & Ungerleider, 1989; DeYoe & Van Essen, 1988;
Livingstone & Hubel, 1988). Consequently it is reasonable that any unconscious processing of
these stimulus attributes may involve dierent streams and levels of processing. Recent ndings
reported by Breitmeyer et al. (in press) indicate that unconscious color priming occurs at stimulusand not at percept-dependent levels of processing, the former correlating with physical properties
of the retinal input and the latter with the perceptual experience reported by an observer. At a
neurophysiological level, stimulus- and percept-dependent levels of processing have been correlated on the one hand with early (V1) and later (V4/V5 and beyond) stages of cortical processing,
respectively (Leopold & Logothetis, 1996; Logothetis & Schall, 1989) and on the other with early
and late response components in primary visual cortex (V1), with the later components reecting
re-entrant activation from higher visual brain centers (Lamme, Super, Landman, Roelfsema, &
Spekreijse, 2000; Super, Spekreijse, & Lamme, 2001). Recent neurophysiological investigations of
visual masking reported by Macknik and Livingstone (1998) indicate that in V1 paracontrast
specically suppresses the early neural response component. If, as concluded by Breitmeyer et al.
(in press), these early stimulus-dependent responses are involved in unconscious color and
form priming when a prime-mask sequence is used, an additional paracontrast mask should
reduce the strength of the early response component to the prime and thus the unconscious
color-priming eect.
In the present experiments we compare priming with to priming without a paracontrast mask in
order to investigate psychophysically the types and levels of unconscious processing in color and
form perception. In conjunction with the neurophysiological results, our results indicate that a
very likely site for unconscious color processing is at early, V1, levels whereas the site of unconscious form processing seems to be at later levels.

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2. Experiment 1: Color
In the rst experiment, we elaborate on the ndings and conclusions of Breitmeyer et al. (in
press) and Ro et al. (in preparation). The former ndings took advantage of the fact that a white
stimulus produced on an RGB video display is physically more similar to a desaturated green
stimulus than a blue one; whereas perceptually, as evidenced by color confusion data, the white
stimulus was more similar to a desaturated blue than green one. The results showed a white diskprime followed by either a blue or green ring at an optimal metacontrast SOA of 42 ms, yielded
priming eects resembling more those of an invisible green rather than blue disk. The unconscious
priming eects of the white disk thus correlated with its wavelength properties rather than its
perceptual properties. Based on Leopold and Logothetiss (1995) report, Breitmeyer et al. (in
press) concluded that the unconscious priming eects involved early, most likely V1, levels of
cortical processing whereas conscious priming involved later levels.
2.1. Experiment 1a: Optimal masking SOAs
In Experiment 1a, we determined the optimal SOAs for paracontrast and metacontrast
masking. First, a perceived brightness-match criterion was used to obtain the optimal SOA for
paracontrast masking. Then a metacontrast mask was added to the paracontrast mask and, using
the same criterion, the optimal SOA for metacontrast masking was determined.
2.1.1. Methods
2.1.1.1. Observers. Two of the authors, BB, a 56-year-old male, and JC, a 31-year-old male, served
as observers. Both observers had normal color vision.
2.1.1.2. Stimuli and apparatus. The experiment was performed in a dark room. The stimuli were
displayed at 100 Hz frame rate on a Sony Trinitron color monitor. Stimulus presentation and
response recording were controlled by a Visual Stimulus Generator (VSG2/5) card manufactured by Cambridge Research Systems. Fig. 1 illustrates the stimulus conguration. The xation
mark consisted of four 24 minarc
6 minarc bars with a luminance of 0 cd/m2 . The bars were
arranged in a notional cross whose center observers xated. The distance from the notional
center to the nearest edge of any of the bars was .8. The stimuli consisted of a ring mask and a
two-disk target display. The upper disk served as the target and the lower disk as the comparison stimulus. The target and comparison stimuli were either a desaturated blue with hue
saturation value (HSV) coordinates of (240.5, 0.668, 0.289) or a desaturated green with HSV
coordinates of (109.91, 0.783, 0.157), and the paracontrast mask was a surrounding ring whose
cyan color, chosen to fall between the blue and green, had HSV coordinates of (179.87, 1,
0.153). The target and comparison disks had a diameter of .28 and the mask ring had inner
and outer diameters of .28 and .5, respectively. The target-mask sequence and the comparison
disk were centered .28 below and above xation, respectively. The luminance of the target disks
and mask ring was 16 cd/m2 ; and the luminance of the background was 8 cd/m2 , yielding a
luminance contrast between the stimuli and the background of 33.33%. The luminance of the
comparison disk could be adjusted adaptively by the observer. The mask and the target were
presented for 10 ms each.

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Fig. 1. An example of stimulus display sequences used in Experiment 1a. To determine the optimal paracontrast SOA,
a neutral cyan paracontrast mask (left panel) was ashed for 10 ms followed at variable SOAs by a 10 ms presentation
(middle panel) of a blue target (upper disk) along with a blue comparison stimulus (lower disk) of dierent luminance.
On other trials green target and comparison disks were presented. To determine the optimal metacontrast SOA, a 10 ms
green (shown) or blue (not shown) ring would follow the target at variable SOAs. Cyan, blue, and green stimuli are
shown by cross hatching, horizontal hatching and vertical hatching, respectively. See text for other stimulus
characteristics.

2.1.1.3. Procedure. For each observer the order of paracontrast SOAs, ranging from )350 to
)20 ms, was randomly determined. At each SOA the luminance of the match stimulus changed
according to the subjects response. Initially the comparison disk was either clearly brighter or
darker than the target disk. On any trial, the observers task was to report, by pressing one of two
response buttons, which of the two disks, the target or the comparison, appeared brighter. If the
comparison disk appeared darker than the target disk on a trial, its luminance was increased
stepwise on the next trial. Conversely, if the comparison disk appeared brighter than the target
disk, its luminance was decreased on the next trial by the same amount. For the initial three
reversals the step sizes were in units of 10 (out of a total of 255) gray levels. After the third reversal, they were in units of 1 gray level. At this step size luminance reversals of the comparison
disk were recorded, and the point of subjective brightness of the target disk for a given SOA was
calculated as the average of the last six luminance reversals of the comparison disk. Once the
optimal paracontrast SOA was determined, the paracontrast SOA was xed at that value, and the
same procedure as described above was applied for SOAs ranging from 20 to 140 ms to determine
the additional optimal metacontrast SOA.1
1

We used this procedure for two reasons: (i) since paracontrast is known to be signicantly weaker than
metacontrast masking (see Breitmeyer, 1984 and Fig. 6 in Ogmen et al., 2003), it leaves plenty of leeway
for metacontrast to add its more powerful masking eects, thus allowing determination of the additional optimal
metacontrast SOA; (ii) we wanted to produce joint-masking eects identical to those used in the para conditions of
Experiment 1b.

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2.1.2. Results
For BB and JC the optimal paracontrast SOAs, i.e, the SOAs at which the apparent contrast of
the disks was maximally decreased by the preceding ring, were )110 and )90 ms, respectively. We
therefore chose the intermediate value of )100 ms as the optimal paracontrast SOA to be used
throughout the subsequent portions of Experiment 1, including determination of the optimal
metacontrast SOA in the current preliminary Experiment 1a. Under these conditions, the optimal
metacontrast SOA was found to be 50 ms for both observers. These values are close the respective
optimal para- and metacontrast SOAs of )120 and 50 ms reported by Ogmen, Breitmeyer, and
Melvin (2003), who used a similar brightness matching technique.
2.2. Experiment 1b: CRTs to mask-ring colors with masked disk primes (cyan paracontrast masks)
To test if, and the extent to which, the initial stimulus-dependent neural response component
(Lamme et al., 2000; Super et al., 2001) contributes to unconscious color-priming eects, one
needs to compare such eects in the absence with eects in the presence of an optimal paracontrast mask. Experiment 1b was designed for such a comparison.
2.2.1. Methods
2.2.1.1. Observers. University of Houston students or sta members served as observers. Informed
consent was obtained from all observers. All had normal color vision and were nave about the
purposes of the experiment.
2.2.1.2. Stimuli and apparatus. Except for the dierences described below the stimuli used in the
present experiment were specied by parameters identical to those used in Experiment 1a. As
shown in Fig. 2, in the present experiment, target primes and masks were presented either above
or below xation at eccentricities of 0.28. The neutral cyan prime was used in addition to the blue
and green primes.
2.2.1.3. Procedure. Each observer participated in four sessions lasting a total of about 1.5 h. Two
sessions were devoted to a condition (no-para) in which only an optimal metacontrast SOA of
50 ms was used; and the remaining two, to the condition (para) in which additionally a paracontrast SOA of )100 was used. Order of conditions was counterbalanced across observers.
Within each condition one session was used to determine CRTs to the mask-ring color; the other
session was used to determine the visibility of the disk primes. Although optimal masking SOAs
are relatively stable across observers, additionally determining the visibility of the primes was
deemed necessary because the paracontrast and metacontrast SOAs of )100 and 50 ms, respectively, obtained for BB and JC may not have been optimal for these observers. Within each
condition, the order of the two sessions was counterbalanced across the observers. For all observers, brief rest periods were inserted after each of the rst three sessions.
The sessions used to measure CRTs to the mask-ring colors consisted of 120 trials. A crossrandomization procedure employed across the 120 trials resulted in the following schedule assuring that each of the possible 12 prime-color, mask-color, and display position combinations
were equally represented. Thus, 40 trials were devoted to each prime color. For a particular prime
color, 20 trials were devoted to the blue ring-mask and 20 to the green one. Of each of these 20

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143

Fig. 2. An example of stimulus display sequences used in Experiments 1b and 1c for measuring both the ring CRT and
the disk identication. A neutral cyan or red paracontrast mask (left panel) was ashed for 10 ms followed at an optimal
paracontrast SOA of )100 ms by a 10 ms presentation (middle panel) of a green (shown), blue (not shown), or cyan (not
shown) target disk which in turn is followed at an optimal metacontrast SOA of 50 ms by a 10 ms blue (shown) or green
(not shown) ring. Cyan, blue, and green stimuli are shown by cross hatching, horizontal hatching and vertical hatching,
respectively. See text for other stimulus characteristics.

trials, 10 trials were in turn devoted to presentation above xation; and 10, below xation. Thus,
across the 120 trials a total of 60 trials were devoted to each of the display positions and to each of
the ring-mask colors. Moreover, this procedure assured that 40 trials were devoted to each of the
following prime-color and mask-color pairings: congruent (e.g., blue disk, blue ring), incongruent
(e.g., blue disk, green ring), and neutral (e.g., cyan disk, green ring). A millisecond clock counter
was initiated by the onset of the mask ring, and observers were instructed to press one of two
response keys to indicate the ring color as quickly and accurately as possible. The response terminated the clock counter. For each observer, only the trials yielding correct responses were used
to compute his/her mean CRTs.
For each of the two (no-para and para) masking conditions, the sessions used to measure prime
visibility also consisted of 120 trials each. Here only the blue and the green disk-primes were used.
Again using a similar cross-randomization procedure, it was assured that 15 trials were devoted to
each of the possible eight combinations of prime color, mask color, and display location. After
each trial, the observer was asked to indicate as accurately as possible, and guessing if necessary,
the color of the presented disk prime by pressing one of two pre-designated response keys. Observers were allowed ample time (5 s) to make their responses. The number of correct responses
were recorded and analyzed o line. In our analysis of CRT results we used data only from
observers whose frequency of correct responses was no less than 50 and no more than 70 out of
120 trials. Our rationale for this procedure was based on the following: Given N 120 trials and
an a priori guessing probability of p :5, the expected frequency of correct responses based on
chance performance is Np 60; and the standard deviation is Np1  p:5 5:48. We accepted

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CRT data from observers as long as their frequency of correct responses fell between 50 and 70,
within the 95% condence interval specied by the chance guessing frequency of 60. Based on this
criterion we ran (16) observers until we obtained usable data from 12 of them.
2.2.2. Results and discussion
2.2.2.1. Prime-color discrimination. The observed proportions of correct responses ranged from
.44 to .58 with an average of .53. When the observed individual frequencies were subjected to a
binomial test against the expected proportion of .5 based on the chance-guessing hypothesis, all
failed to deviate signicantly from chance (.0547 6 p 6 .9273). These results indicate that the
observers guessed, and thus did not perceive, the color of the masked disk primes on all or most of
the trials. Moreover, they corroborate the verbal reports obtained at the end of the experimental
session from observers, all of whom stated that, not having seen the disks, they guessed their
colors.
2.2.2.2. Mask CRTs. The average response error rates across the experimental conditions ranged
from .83 to 2.75%. The results for the correct CRT measures are shown in Fig. 3. They were
subjected to a 3 (color pairing)
2 (paracontrast mask) repeated-measures ANOVA. Inspection
of Fig. 3 shows that the overall eects of color pairings were signicant (F2;22 36:07, p < :001).
Separate ANOVAs for the no-para and the para conditions showed that both conditions produced signicant color pairing eects (no-para: F2;22 38:24, p < :001; para: F2;22 9:00,
p < :001), with CRTs generally increasing from congruent, through neutral, to incongruent
pairings of prime and mask colors. Moreover, CRTs overall were higher in the para as compared
to no-para condition (F1;11 5:87, p < :04). It appears from inspection of Fig. 1 that the

Fig. 3. Choice reaction times to the colors of the metacontrast mask rings for the no-para and para conditions. Results
for the congruent, neutral and incongruent pairings of disk and mask colors are labeled accordingly.

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145

paracontrast eect on over all CRT is mainly due to increases, relative to the no-para condition,
of mean CRTs in the congruent and neutral trials. This, in turn, led to a weaker eect of congruency in the para as compared to no-para condition as reected in a signicant color pairing
paracontrast mask interaction (F2;22 16:95, p < :001).
Fig. 4 illustrates this interaction in terms of congruency eects, which we dene as the RT
dierences between the incongruent and congruent conditions. As can be seen, mean congruency
eects were more pronounced in the no-para condition than in the para condition (t11 5:80,
p < :0001). These results support the main hypothesis that paracontrast signicantly reduces the
color-priming eects.
We additionally looked at the correlation between observers frequency of correct responses in
the disk-color identication task and the magnitude of their congruency eect. We reasoned that
an observers likelihood of actually seeing the masked disk would vary in direct proportion to the
frequency of his/her correctly identifying the color of the masked disk. For example, an observer
with a correct response frequency of 70 (above the expected chance frequency) ought to have a
higher probability of having actually seen masked disks than an observer with a correct response
frequency of 61 (very near to the expected chance frequency). Moreover, on the assumption that
only the seen primes are responsible for the congruency eect, we reasoned that if the primes are
seen (not masked) more often in a series of 120 trials they also yield a larger congruency eect.
Thus one would expect a positive correlation between the frequency of correct responses in the
disk-color identication task and the magnitude of the congruency eect in the CRT task. Since
the experiment used 12 subjects, 12 pairs of correct frequency and congruency eect were used to
compute the correlations for each condition. For the no-para and para conditions, the correlations between correct response frequency and the magnitude of congruency eect were ).294 and
.016, respectively; neither of which diered signicantly from 0 (p > :33). The lack of signicant
positive correlations is an additional indicator either (a) that the observers did not perceive the
colored disks at all when they were masked; or if they did perceive some, (b) that the congruency

Fig. 4. The results of Fig. 3 shown separately for the no-para and para conditions in terms of congruency eects
(reaction time dierences between the incongruent and the congruent targetmask color pairings).

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eect failed to correlate (or correlated negatively) with prime visibility, contrary to what one
would have expected.
2.3. Experiment 1c: CRTs to mask-ring colors with masked disk primes (red paracontrast masks)
One could argue that the results of Experiment 1b were contaminated by factors other than the
masking eect of the paracontrast mask. Since the color of the mask was cyan, it, in addition to
the cyan disk, could have served as a strong neutral priming stimulus. The eect would be to have
the RTs for the incongruent and congruent conditions converge toward those obtained in the
neutral condition, thus reducing the congruency eect, as was found. To assure that the paracontrast mask exerts its eects as a mask rather than as a neutral prime, in this experiment we
chose a color that is not cyan but rather as dierent from cyan as possible.
2.3.1. Methods
2.3.1.1. Observers. University of Houston students or sta members served as observers. Informed
consent was obtained from all observers. All had normal color vision and were nave about the
purposes of the experiment.
2.3.1.2. Stimuli and apparatus. The stimuli used in the present experiment were specied by parameters identical to those used in Experiment 1b, except for the use of a red paracontrast mask
rather than a cyan one. The red color was chosen since in the hue-saturation space it was 180 out
of phase relative to the cyan color, thus maximizing its dierence from the cyan color. The HSV
coordinates of the red mask were (359.25, 0.688, 0.270).
2.3.1.3. Procedure. The procedure used in the present experiment was identical to that used in
Experiment 1b. We obtained usable data from 10 out of a total of 17 observers.
2.3.2. Results and discussion
2.3.2.1. Prime-color discrimination. The observed proportions of correct responses ranged from
.48 to .58 with an average of .52. When the observed individual proportions were subjected to a
binomial test against the expected proportion of .5 based on the chance-guessing hypothesis, all
failed to deviate signicantly from chance (:0547 6 p 6 :9273). These results indicate that the
observers guessed, and thus did not perceive, the color of the masked disk primes on all or most of
the trials. Moreover, they corroborate the verbal reports obtained at the end of the experimental
session from observers, all of whom stated that, not having seen the disks, they guessed their
colors.
2.3.2.2. Mask CRTs. The average response error rates across the experimental conditions ranged
from 4.9 to 7.3%. The results for the correct CRT measures are shown in Fig. 5. They were
subjected to a 3 (color pairing)
2 (paracontrast mask) repeated-measures ANOVA. The results
basically replicated those of Experiment 1b. Inspection of Fig. 5 shows that the overall eects of
color pairings were signicant F2;18 31:85; p < :001. Separate ANOVAs for the no-para and
the para conditions showed that both conditions produced signicant color pairing eects (nopara: F2;18 52:51, p < :001; para: F2;18 12:17, p < :001), with CRTs generally increasing from

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147

Fig. 5. Choice reaction times to the colors of the metacontrast mask rings for the no-para and para conditions. Results
for the congruent, neutral and incongruent pairings of disk and mask colors are labeled accordingly.

congruent, through neutral, to incongruent pairings of prime and mask colors. Moreover, the
congruency eects were smaller in the para as compared to no-para condition, as reected in a
signicant color pairing
paracontrast mask interaction (F2;18 8:12, p < :003).
Fig. 6 illustrates this interaction in terms of congruency eects, dened as the RT dierences
between the incongruent and congruent conditions. As can be seen, mean congruency eects were
more pronounced in the no-para condition than in the para condition (t9 3:86, p < :005). These

Fig. 6. The results of Fig. 5 shown separately for the no-para and para conditions in terms of congruency eects
(reaction time dierences between the incongruent and the congruent targetmask color pairings).

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results again support the main hypothesis that the paracontrast mask signicantly reduces the
color-priming eects.
Using the same rationale as in Experiment 1b, we additionally looked at the correlation between observers frequency of correct responses in the disk-color identication task and the
magnitude of their congruency eect. For the no-para and para conditions, the correlations between correct response frequency and the magnitude of congruency eect were both ).458; neither
of which diered signicantly from 0 (p > :18). Moreover, both correlations were negative. These
combined facts indicate either (a) that the observers did not perceive the colored disks at all when
they were masked; or if they did perceive some, (b) that the congruency eect in fact correlated
negatively instead of positively with prime visibility, contrary to what one would have expected.
So far, the results indicate that a paracontrast mask preceding the disk primes can suppresses
the early neural responses to the colored disks and thus reduce their (wavelength-dependent)
priming eects. If paracontrast has a similar eect on form priming, one would expect a similar
reduction of form-specic priming eects. The following experiment tests this hypothesis.
3. Experiment 2: Form
3.1. Experiment 2a: Optimal masking SOAs
In Experiment 2a, as in Experiment 1a, we determined the optimal SOAs for paracontrast and
metacontrast masking. First, a perceived brightness-match criterion was used to obtain the optimal
SOA for paracontrast masking. Then a metacontrast mask was added to the paracontrast mask
and, using the same criterion, the optimal SOA for metacontrast masking was determined (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7. Stimulus display sequences used in Experiment 2a. To determine the optimal paracontrast SOA, a circular
paracontrast mask (left panel) was ashed for 10 ms followed at variable SOAs by a 10 ms presentation (middle panel)
of a square or else diamond target (above xation) along with a corresponding square or diamond comparison stimulus
(below xation) of dierent luminance. To determine the optimal metacontrast SOA, a 10 ms presentation of a larger
diamond or else square mask would follow the target at variable SOAs. See text for other stimulus characteristics.

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149

3.1.1. Methods
3.1.1.1. Observers. Two of the authors, BB, a 56-year-old male, and JC, a 31-year-old male, served
as observers. Both observers had normal or corrected-to-normal vision.
3.1.1.2. Stimuli and apparatus. The experiment was performed in a dark room. The stimuli were
displayed at 100 Hz frame rate on a Sony Trinitron color monitor. Stimulus presentation and
response recording were controlled by a Visual Stimulus Generator (VSG2/5) card manufactured
by Cambridge Research Systems. Fig. 7 illustrates the stimulus conguration. A dark xation
cross, centered on the display screen, was constructed from a vertical and horizontal components,
each 2 minarc wide and 12 minarc long, with a luminance of 0 cd/m2 . All stimuli were presented on
a uniform-white background with a luminance of 100 cd/m2 . As shown in Fig. 7, the target and
comparison stimuli consisted of either outlined squares or diamonds whose sides measured .85;
the metacontrast mask consisted of a larger square or diamond whose sides measured 1.7, and
the paracontrast mask was a larger circle with a diameter of 1.7. To optimize contour masking
eects all the masks also contained a small dark internal star conguration that matched the white
internal conguration of the targets and comparison stimuli. The stimuli were thus constructed
so that the targets t as snugly as possible in the white area between the internal dark edges of
the masks.
The targets and metacontrast masks were set at a luminance of 33.33 cd/m2 , yielding a contrast
of 0.5. The paracontrast mask could assume a luminance of either 33.33 or 0 cd/m2 , yielding
contrast of .5 or 1.0. The upper portion of the stimulus display contained the target and mask
stimuli; and the lower one, the comparison stimuli. Both the target and comparison stimuli were
either a square or a diamond, and the metacontrast mask was either a diamond or square. The
targets and masks were centered 1.25 above xation; and the comparison stimuli, 1.25 below
xation. The luminance of the comparison disk could be adjusted adaptively by the observer. The
masks and the targets were presented for 10 ms each.
3.1.1.3. Procedure. Except for the use of dierent target and metacontrast mask stimuli, the
procedure used in the present experiment was identical to that used in Experiment 1a.
3.1.2. Results
For both BB and JC the optimal paracontrast SOA was )90 ms, irrespective of mask contrast
(0.5 and 1.0). This optimal paracontrast SOA was used throughout the subsequent portions of
Experiment 2, including determination of the optimal metacontrast SOA in the current preliminary Experiment 2a. Under these conditions, the optimal metacontrast SOA was found to be
60 ms for both observers. These values again are close the respective optimal para- and metacontrast SOAs of )120 and 50 ms reported by Ogmen et al. (2003), who used a similar brightness
matching technique.
3.2. Experiment 2: CRTs to mask forms with masked form-primes
The rationale for this experiment is identical to that of Experiment 1b. Here we compare unconscious priming eects in the absence, to eects in the presence, of an optimal paracontrast
mask. Moreover, in addition to a 0.5-contrast we used a 1.0-contrast paracontrast mask because

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the magnitude of paracontrast varies directly with the contrast of the mask stimulus (Weisstein,
1972). Thus, we reasoned that if paracontrast masking reduces the form-priming eect as it does
the color-priming eect, the 1.0 mask contrast should produce a stronger reduction than the 0.5
contrast.
3.2.1. Methods
3.2.1.1. Observers. University of Houston students or sta members served as observers. Informed
consent was obtained from all observers. All had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and were
nave about the purposes of the experiment.
3.2.1.2. Stimuli and apparatus. Except for the dierences described below the stimuli used in the
present experiment were specied by parameters identical to those used in Experiment 1a. As
shown in Fig. 8, in the present experiment, target primes and masks were presented 1.25 above or
else below xation at eccentricities. The position of the prime and mask varied randomly over
trials. In addition to the square and diamond primes, a neutral star prime (the union of the square
and diamond primes) was used. The neutral prime had the same luminance as the square and
diamond primes.
3.2.1.3. Procedure. Each observer participated in six sessions lasting a total of about 2 h. Two
sessions were devoted to a control condition (no-para) in which only an optimal metacontrast
SOA of 60 ms was used; another two, to the condition (low para) in which additionally a 0.5contrast paracontrast mask was used; and the remaining two, to the condition (high para) in
which additionally a 1.0-contrast paracontrast mask was used. Order of conditions was counterbalanced across observers. Within each condition one session was used to determine CRTs to
the mask-ring color; the other session was used to determine the visibility of the disk primes.

Fig. 8. Stimulus display sequences used in Experiment 2b for measuring both the mask CRT and the target form
identication. A circular paracontrast mask (left panel) was ashed for 10 ms followed at an optimal paracontrast SOA
of )90 ms by a 10 ms presentation of a square, diamond, or else star target, which in turn is followed at an optimal
metacontrast SOA of 60 ms by a 10 ms presentation of a larger diamond or square mask. See text for other stimulus
characteristics.

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151

Within each condition, the order of the two sessions was counterbalanced across the observers.
For all observers, brief rest periods were inserted after each of the sessions.
The sessions used to measure CRTs to the mask forms consisted of 120 trials. A cross-randomization procedure employed across the 120 trials resulted in the following schedule assuring
that each of the possible 12 prime-form, mask-form, and display position combinations were
equally represented. Thus, 40 trials were devoted to each prime form. For a particular prime from,
20 trials were devoted to the square mask and 20 to the diamond one. Of each of these 20 trials, 10
trials were in turn devoted to presentation above xation; and 10, below xation, assuring that,
across the 120 trials, a total of 60 trials were devoted to each of the display positions and to each
of the mask forms. Moreover, 40 trials were devoted to each of the following prime-form and
mask-form pairings: congruent (e.g., square prime, square mask), incongruent (e.g., square prime,
diamond mask) and neutral (e.g., star prime, square mask). A millisecond clock counter was
initiated by the onset of the mask, and observers were instructed to press one of two response keys
to indicate the mask form as quickly and accurately as possible. The response terminated the clock
counter. Each observers mean response accuracy and CRT were evaluated o line.
For each of the masking conditions, the sessions used to measure prime visibility also consisted
of 120 trials each. Here only the square and the diamond primes were used. Again using a similar
cross-randomization procedure, it was assured that 15 trials were devoted to each of the possible
eight combinations of prime form, mask form, and display location. After each trial, the observer
was asked to indicate as accurately as possible, and guessing if necessary, the form of the prime by
pressing one of two pre-designated response keys. Observers were allowed ample time (5 s) to
make their responses. The number of correct responses were recorded and analyzed o line.
In our analysis of CRT results we again employed the rationale outlined in Experiments 1b and
1c to obtain data only from observers whose frequency of correct responses was no less than 50
and no more than 70 out of 120 trials. Based on this criterion we obtained usable data from 12 out
of a total of 15 observers.
3.2.2. Results and discussion
3.2.2.1. Prime-form discrimination. The observed proportions of correct responses ranged from .42
to .58 with an average of .51. When the observed individual frequencies were subjected to a binomial test against the expected proportion of .5 based on the chance-guessing hypothesis, all
failed to deviate signicantly from chance (:0547 6 p 6 :9273). Again, these results indicate that
the observers guessed, and thus did not at all or only infrequently perceive, the form of the
masked primes. Moreover, they corroborate the verbal reports obtained at the end of the experimental session from observers, who all stated that they could not see the disks and therefore
guessed their forms.
3.2.2.2. Mask CRTs. The average response error rates across the experimental conditions ranged
from 1.25 to 3.58%. The results for the correct CRT measures are shown in Fig. 9. They were
subjected to a 3 (form pairing)
3 (paracontrast mask) repeated-measures ANOVA. Inspection of
Fig. 9 shows that there was a signicant eect of form pairings (F2;22 75:43, p < :0001) with
CRTs generally increasing from congruent, through neutral, to incongruent pairings of prime and
mask forms. Paracontrast condition failed to aect CRT (F2;22 1:872, p > :19). Of most interest,
the signicant form-pairing eect did not interact with paracontrast condition (F2;22 1:872,

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Fig. 9. Choice reaction times to the metacontrast mask forms for the no-para, lo-para, and hi-para conditions. Results
for the congruent, neutral and incongruent pairings of target and mask forms are labeled accordingly.

p > :18). Specically, the two para conditions did not reduce the priming eect relative to the nopara condition, nor did the expected greater decrease of the priming eect in the hi-para as
compared to lo-para condition materialize.
Fig. 10 illustrates this lack of interaction in terms of congruency eect. As can be seen, signicant congruency eects were obtained in all three paracontrast conditions. Although the interaction between form pairing and paracontrast mask was not signicant, inspection of Fig. 10
indicates that, if anything, the size of the congruency eect tended to be greater, rather than less,
in the lo- and hi-para conditions than in the no-para condition. Consistent with the lack of a
signicant interaction, a pair-wise comparison of mean congruency eects among the paracontrast conditions revealed that only the dierence between the no-para and the lo-para conditions

Fig. 10. The results of Fig. 9 shown separately for the no-para and para conditions in terms of congruency eects
(reaction time dierences between the incongruent and the congruent targetmask color pairings).

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153

was signicant (t11 2:40, p < :04); the dierence between the no-para and hi-para condition
(t11 < 1:61, p > :13) as well as that between the lo-para and hi-para condition (t11 < 0:39, p > :70)
were not signicant. Thus, these results do not support the hypothesis that paracontrast signicantly reduces the form-priming eects. If anything paracontrast slightly increases the eect.
Using a rationale similar to that outlined in Experiments 1b and 1c, we additionally examined
the correlation between observers frequency of correct responses in the prime-form identication
task and the magnitude of the congruency eect. For the no-para, lo-para, and hi-para conditions,
the correlations between correct response frequency and the magnitude of congruency eect were
.426, ).080, and .435, respectively; none of which diered signicantly from 0 (p > :155). The lack
of signicant or consistent positive correlations is an additional indicator (a) that the observers
either did not perceive the colored disks when they were masked, or if they did, (b) that the
occasional visibility did not contribute signicantly to the congruency eect.

4. General discussion
Our results replicate prior and concurrent ndings indicating that when a primes visual information is suppressed from conscious registration by a metacontrast mask it nonetheless can
aect the CRTs to the colors (Breitmeyer et al., in press; Ro et al., in preparation; Schmidt, 2000,
2002) or to the forms (Ansorge et al., 1998; Klotz & Wol, 1995; Neumann & Klotz, 1994) of the
consciously perceived mask. This inference, of course, rests on the assumption that the color and
form primes in Experiments 1b, 1c, and 2b were not consciously perceived. The analysis of colorand form-identication results obtained in these experiments lend support to the assumption. The
respective average proportions of correct responses were .53, .52, and .51, neither of which is
signicantly dierent from the chance guessing probability of .5 (p > :40 by binomial test). Since
there was variability among observers, it is possible that some observers did consciously perceive
the primes color or form during some of the trials; and thus these observers would contribute
disproportionately to the magnitude of the congruency eects. However, the additionally computed correlations between observers frequency of correct responses and the magnitude of the
congruency eect failed to support this explanation. In Experiments 1b, 1c, and 2b, none of the
seven correlations diered signicantly from zero. Moreover, four of the seven correlations were
negative, i.e., their sign was in a direction opposite to that predicted by the hypothesis that higher
correct prime-identication frequencies are positively associated with greater congruency eects
(Ro et al., in preparation). This inconsistency in the sign of the correlation also fails to reasonably
support the assumption that conscious registration of primes contributed signicantly to the
priming eects in Experiments 1b, 1c, and 2b. We combined the results of these three experiments
to compute a overall correlation based on a total of 80 pairs of prime-identication frequencies
and congruency-eect magnitudes. The obtained correlation of .084 again was not signicantly
dierent from 0 (p > :46). Finally, we looked at the 64 of 80 pairs of values where prime-identication frequencies were at or above chance performance. Assuming that visible primes contribute most to the congruency eect, one would expect that these pairs contribute most to a
positive correlation between prime-identication frequency and congruency-eect magnitude,
since observes who identied the prime below chance would be less likely to have perceived the
primes. However, even here the obtained correlation of .067 was not signicantly dierent from

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zero (p > :59). The scatter plot, regression equation and associated R2 value are shown in Fig. 11.
The correlation accounted for only 0.45% of the total variance.
A further factor that must be ruled out is the possible priming eect of the paracontrast mask.
In Experiment 1b, the color of the paracontrast mask was cyan like that of the neutral prime.
Hence the paracontrast ring could have acted as an additional and visible neutral prime rather
than as a mask and thus reduced the congruency eect relative to that in the no-para condition.
Experiment 1c showed that the paracontrast eect was still present when the paracontrast mask
was red rather than cyan. This indicates that the masking eect of a paracontrast mask indeed
does reduce the congruency eect. Of course, one could argue that the red paracontrast mask also
would have acted as a neutral prime. However, by the same token, in Experiment 2b the circular
paracontrast mask also was neutral in so far as it would not prime responses preferentially to
either the diamond or the square metacontrast mask. Hence, here one also would expect to obtain
a reduction in the congruency eects, contrary to what was actually found. The results of Experiment 2b thus show that the general claim, that reductions in the congruency eect are produced by paracontrast masks acting as neutral primes, cannot be sustained.
The results of the three experiments are consistent with a number of additional studies showing
that masked primes whose identity is inaccessible to conscious report can aect a variety of behavioral, emotional, and mental operations (Dimberg, Thunberg, & Elmehed, 2000; Dolan, 2002;
Eimer, 1999; Eimer & Schlaghecken, 1998, 2002; Esteves & Ohman, 1994; Morris & Dolan, 2001;
Ohman, 2002; Taylor & McCloskey, 1990; Whalen et al., 1998). In fact, some of these studies
indicate that despite suppression of its phenomenal visibility, a prime can be processed at fairly
sophisticated and high visual information processing levels, including the semantic level (Kihlstrom, 1996; Klinger & Greenwald, 1995; Marcel, 1983). The results are also consistent with
microgenetic approaches to visual perception (Bachmann, 1994, 2000) according to which visual
processing proceeds through various stages, with earlier unconscious processing stages inuencing
the later conscious ones.

Fig. 11. Scatter plot, with linear regression equation and R2 value, for pairs of correct target identication frequencies
(falling between 60 and 70 out of 120) and corresponding congruency-eect magnitudes combined from all conditions in
both experiments.

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155

Although our discrimination tasks relied on visuo-sensory rather than semantic criteria, the
results of the current experiments indicate that unconscious color and form priming occur at
dierent levels in the visual processing stream. It is known that in the primate visual system the
parvocellular (P) blob and interblob streams of cortical processing appear to perform processing
of dierent stimulus properties. The former stream processes predominantly wavelength or
chromatic information; the latter, mostly form information (Desimone & Ungerleider, 1989;
DeYoe & Van Essen, 1988; Livingstone & Hubel, 1988), although V1 cells have been found that
show concomitant sensitivity to orientation (form) and color (Leventhal, Thompson, Liu, Zhou,
& Ault, 1995). Since metacontrast is believed to rely on suppression of activity in the cortical P
pathways (Breitmeyer, 1984; Breitmeyer & Ogmen, 2000), it is possible that such suppression
occurs at dierent levels in the P color- and form-processing streams of processing.
The results of the Experiment 2b demonstrate that the information processing responsible for
unconscious form priming during metacontrast masking is immune to the eects of paracontrast;
in contrast, the information processing responsible for unconscious color priming, as shown in
Experiments 1b and 1c can be suppressed by paracontrast. Insofar as (i) the early response
components in V1 neurons are susceptible to paracontrast masking (Macknik & Livingstone,
1998) and (ii) signicant paracontrast masking was obtained not only with the color stimuli
(Experiment 1a) but also with the form stimuli (Experiment 2a), our results indicate that the early
response components contribute to unconscious color priming but not to unconscious form
priming. According to Lamme and co-workers (Lamme et al., 2000; Super et al., 2001), neural
correlates of stimulus- and percept-dependent processing can be found, respectively, in the early
and late response components of V1 neurons. The results of Experiments 1b and 1c thus conrm
those reported by Breitmeyer et al. (in press), indicating that unconscious color priming is produced by the early stimulus- or wavelength-dependent neural activity characterizing V1 chromatic
neurons (Zeki, 1997; Zeki & Marini, 1998). The results of Experiment 2b, in contrast, indicate that
unconscious form priming does not occur at similar early response components of V1 neurons but
rather at some later levels of processing. Where such priming may occur is yet to be specied. It
could occur at later stimulus-dependent levels or at still later percept-dependent, yet unconscious,
levels of neural processing. In either case, even when restricted to the visuo-sensory domain,
unconscious color and form priming appear to occur at dierent level of processing.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NSF Grant BCS-0114533 and NIH Grant R01-MH49892. We
thank the anonymous reviewers of our original manuscript for their helpful comments and
suggestions for improvement.
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