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The expectancies that govern the P300 amplitude are mostly automatic and unconscious

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 1998

W. Sommer
Affiliation:
Humboldt University at Berlin, Institut für Psychologie, 10117 Berlin, Germanywerner.sommer@rz.hu-berlin.de
H. Leuthold
Affiliation:
Humboldt University at Berlin, Institut für Psychologie, 10117 Berlin, Germanywerner.sommer@rz.hu-berlin.de
J. Matt
Affiliation:
Humboldt University at Berlin, Institut für Psychologie, 10117 Berlin, Germanywerner.sommer@rz.hu-berlin.de

Abstract

We argue that probability effects on P300 amplitude are the product of an automatic frequency detector not subject to voluntary control and relatively inaccessible to consciousness. “Expectancies” related to P300 therefore appear to be passive, perceptual ones. If probability-based expectancies do become conscious, they are inversely related to P300, supporting the view of Donchin & Coles (1988).

Type
Continuing Commentary
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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