Repeating a strongly masked stimulus increases priming and awareness.
Anne Atas, Astrid Vermeiren, Axel Cleeremans
Consciousness and Cognition December 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2013.09.011 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Awareness Priming Repeated masking method |
| Key findings | The authors report that their results do not replicate the previously observed dissociation in which repeated masked stimuli improve priming without increasing awareness. Instead, the findings are suggestive that repeating an unconscious and attended masked stimulus enables perceptual awareness to emerge progressively. |
Abstract
Previous studies [Marcel, A. J. (1983). Conscious and unconscious perception: Experiments on visual masking and word recognition. Cognitive Psychology, 15(2), 197-237; Wentura, D., & Frings, C. (2005). Repeated masked category primes interfere with related exemplars: New evidence for negative semantic priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31(1), 108-120] suggested that repeatedly presenting a masked stimulus improves priming without increasing perceptual awareness. However, neural theories of consciousness predict the opposite: Increasing bottom-up strength in such a paradigm should also result in increasing availability to awareness. Here, we tested this prediction by manipulating the number of repetitions of a strongly masked digit. Our results do not replicate the dissociation observed in previous studies and are instead suggestive that repeating an unconscious and attended masked stimulus enables the progressive emergence of perceptual awareness.
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Revisiting the neuroscientific evidence for unconscious perception - the implications of affordances theory and biased competition. Acta Psychologica June 20, 2025
- Further evidence and theoretical framework for a subliminal sensory buffer store (SSBS). Consciousness and Cognition 2023
- Strongly masked content retained in memory made accessible through repetition. Scientific Reports May 13, 2021
Cites 10
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and 5 more in the library