Abstract
Semantic priming by visually masked, unidentifiable (“subliminal”) words occurs robustly when the words appearing as masked primes have been classified earlier in practice as visible targets. It has been argued (Damian, 2001) that practice enables robust subliminal priming by automatizing learned associations between words and the specific motor responses used to classify them. Two experiments demonstrate that, instead, the associations formed in practice that underlie subliminal priming are between words and semantic categories. Visible words classified aspleasant or unpleasant in practice with one set of response key assignments functioned later as subliminal primes with appropriate valence, even when associations of keys with valences were reversed before the test. This result shows that subliminal priming involves unconscious categorization of the prime, rather than just the automatic activation of a practiced stimulus-response mapping.
Article PDF
References
Abrams, R. L., &Greenwald, A. G. (2000). Parts outweigh the whole (word) in unconscious analysis of meaning.Psychological Science,11, 118–124.
Damian, M. F. (2001). Congruity effects evoked by subliminally presented primes: Automaticity rather than semantic processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,27, 154–165.
Dehaene, S., Naccache, L., Le Clech, G., Koechlin, E., Mueller, M., Dehaene-Lambertz, G., van de Moortele, P., &Le Bihan, D. (1998). Imaging unconscious semantic priming.Nature,395, 597–600.
Dosher, B. (1998). The response-window regression method—some problematic assumptions: Comment on Draine and Greenwald (1998).Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,127, 311–317.
Draine, S. C. (1997).Analytic limitations of unconscious language processing. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Washington.
Draine, S. C., &Greenwald, A. (1998). Replicable unconscious semantic priming.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,127, 286–303.
Drury, S., & Klinger, M. R. (May, 2000).Repetition priming in unconscious perception. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.
Forster, K. I. (1998). The pros and cons of masked priming.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research,27, 203–233.
Greenwald, A. G. (1992). New Look 3: Unconscious cognition reclaimed.American Psychologist,47, 776–779.
Greenwald, A. G., &Draine, S. C. (1997). Do subliminal stimuli enter the mind unnoticed? Tests with a new method. In J. Cohen & J. Schuler (Eds.),Scientific approaches to consciousness: 25th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition (pp. 83–108). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Greenwald, A. G., &Draine, S. C. (1998). Distinguishing unconscious from conscious cognition—reasonable assumptions and replicable findings: Reply to Merikle and Reingold (1998) and Dosher (1998).Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,127, 320–324.
Greenwald, A. G., Draine, S. C., &Abrams, R. L. (1996). Three cognitive markers of unconscious semantic activation.Science,273, 1699–1702.
Greenwald, A. G., Klinger, M. R., &Schuh, E. S. (1995). Activation by marginally perceptible (“subliminal”) stimuli: Dissociation of unconscious from conscious cognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,124, 22–42.
Kihlstrom, J. (1987). The cognitive unconscious.Science,237, 1445–1452.
Klauer, K., Draine, S. C., &Greenwald, A. G. (1998). An unbiased errors-in-variables approach to detecting unconscious cognition.British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology,51, 253–267.
Klauer, K., Greenwald, A. G., &Draine, S. C. (1998). Correcting for measurement error in detecting unconscious cognition: Comment on Draine & Greenwald (1998).Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,127, 318–319.
Klinger, M. R., Burton, P., &Pitts, S. (2000). Mechanisms of unconscious priming: I: Response competition, not spreading activation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 441–455.
Loftus, E. F., &Klinger, M. R. (1992). Is the unconscious smart or dumb?American Psychologist,47, 761–765.
Logan, G. D. (1990). Repetition priming and automaticity: Common underlying mechanisms?Cognitive Psychology,22, 1–35.
Merikle, P. M., &Reingold, E. M. (1998). On demonstrating unconscious perception: Comment on Draine and Greenwald (1998).Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,127, 304–310.
Morton, J. (1969). The interaction of information in word recognition.Psychological Review,76, 165–178.
Treisman, A. (1960). Contextual cues in selective listening.Quarterley Journal of Experimental Psychology,12, 242–248.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant SBR-9710172 and National Institute of Mental Health Grants MH41328, MH01533, and MH57672 to A.G.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Abrams, R.L., Klinger, M.R. & Greenwald, A.G. Subliminal words activate semantic categories (not automated motor responses). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9, 100–106 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196262
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196262