Abstract
Does unconscious perception at the objective detection threshold (ODT) exist? In this reply, formal meta-analyses of previously narratively reviewed evidence (Snodgrass, Bernat, & Shevrin, 2004) provide strong evidence for large, reliable unconscious perceptual effects, and further strengthen previous conclusions for their ODT status. These meta-analyses dispel general concerns that ODT effects are small, unreliable, or susceptible to file drawer concerns (cf. Reingold, 2004). Furthermore, the specific objections (Holender & Duscherer, 2004) to individual ODT effects are refuted, and objections to our proposed solutions to the exhaustiveness, exclusiveness, and null sensitivity problems (Haase & Fisk, 2004; Reingold, 2004) are shown to be inapplicable, contradicted by the available evidence, or both. Accordingly, the strong evidence for ODT effects, taken together with the nonmonotonic relationship, contradicts the single-process conscious perception model (e.g., Holender & Duscherer, 2004) and provides stronger evidence for unconscious perception than hitherto available.
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This research was undertaken as part of a research program on conscious and unconscious processes in the Ormond and Hazel Hunt Memorial Laboratory, directed by H.S. and supported by gifts from Robert Berry and the Smart Family Foundation.
Note—This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, headed by Neil Macmillan.
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Snodgrass, M., Bernat, E. & Shevrin, H. Unconscious perception at the objective detection threshold exists. Perception & Psychophysics 66, 888–895 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194982
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194982