Is conscious perception necessary to direct attention? A replication of Jiang et al. (2006): Stage 2 Registered Report
PsyArXiv Preprints March 11, 2026 preprint DOI: osf:6w3dk_v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Replication study |
|---|---|
| Population | Heterosexual participants |
| Keywords | Continuous flash suppression Dot-probe Unconscious attention Unconscious perception Cognitive psychology Consciousness |
| Key points | The authors report moderate Bayesian evidence that opposite-sex nude images presented below the subjective conscious threshold attracted attention in heterosexual participants, consistent with the proposal that attention and consciousness are dissociable and that sexually attractive stimuli capture attention even when unconscious. |
Abstract
The relationship between attention and consciousness has been debated for decades. Observing attentional biases induced by visual stimuli below the conscious threshold is one way of providing evidence for the independence of attention and conscious perception. Among such studies, Jiang et al. (2006) found a strong priming effect below the objective conscious threshold with high sensitivity, in showing attentional biases to nude images suppressed by continuous flash suppression (CFS). In our replication, we found moderate Bayesian evidence for the unconscious attraction from opposite sex nude images below the subjective conscious threshold in heterosexual participants. This supports the theory that attention and consciousness are dissociable, and the idea that sexually attractive visual stimuli capture attention even when rendered unconscious. The results have been checked for computational reproducibility by an independent statistician, full report at https://osf.io/dr35v/files/te58h.