B.1.4. Experiment 1.2: endogenous influences and perceptual priming

The goal of the second experiment was to replicate the salience effects observed in the first experiment, and then to show that one can modulate them, either by further enhancing the RT benefits due to salience, or by suppressing these salience-based effects. In this second experiment, the most relevant size was indicated before each trial, either perceptually, by directly presenting a square similar to the target (same size, but not gaped), or symbolically, by presenting an indicative letter. Manipulating the nature of the cue aimed at evaluating the influence of perceptual priming on the cueing effects, suggested by Maljkovic and Nakayama (1994; see Müller et al., 2003 for a discussion on this issue). Here, the symbolic cue (the letter) should not induce any noticeable perceptual priming effect, contrary to the perceptual cue (the square).