Updated Expectations are Needed for Masked Priming Experiments: Commentary on Tsikandilakis et al. (2025).

Abstract

Masking priming research into unconscious perception has a long history of ambiguous findings and controversies. Tsikandilakis and colleagues (2025) offer several commendable methodology recommendations that might resolve ambiguities and lead to compelling findings. However, better methodology might be insufficient to fully address the weaknesses of the null awareness paradigm. The expected experimental outcomes originate from decades-old models of perception and consciousness that are oversimplistic and obsolete. A re-orientation is needed. Given that perception, cognition, and emotion are the products of network functions, we should expect that perception and consciousness will have a graded continuum, dependent relationship for near-threshold stimuli. Methodology improvements are welcome, but updated expectations for experimental outcomes will also be needed to advance unconscious perception research.