Strongly masked content retained in memory made accessible through repetition.

Strongly masked visual information can be stored and accumulate to elicit clear perception, even when people are not consciously aware of it. Masking did not erase or overwrite memory traces but limited conscious perception. Stored information decayed gradually but rapidly: extraction of meaningful information was severely impaired after 300 milliseconds, and most data was lost after 700 milliseconds. These findings support theories of consciousness based on integration of subliminal information and the global workspace theory, particularly the existence of an implicit iconic memory buffer store.

Study at a glance

Abstract

A growing body of evidence indicates that information can be stored even in the absence of conscious awareness. Despite these findings, unconscious memory is still poorly understood with limited evidence for unconscious iconic memory storage. Here we show that strongly masked visual data can be stored and accumulate to elicit clear perception. We used a repetition method across a wide range of conditions (Experiment 1) and a more focused follow-up experiment with enhanced masking conditions (Experiment 2). Information was stored despite being masked, demonstrating that masking did not erase or overwrite memory traces but limited perception. We examined the temporal properties and found that stored information followed a gradual but rapid decay. Extraction of meaningful information was severely impaired after 300 ms, and most data was lost after 700 ms. Our findings are congruent with theories of consciousness that are based on an integration of subliminal information and support theoretical predictions based on the global workspace theory of consciousness, especially the existence of an implicit iconic memory buffer store.