Spatial orienting controlled without awareness: a semantically based implicit learning effect.
Three experiments tested whether spatial attention can be influenced by a predictive relation between incidental information and the location of target events. Subjects performed a simple dot detection task; 600 msec prior to each target a word was presented briefly 5 degrees to the left or right of fixation. There was a predictive relationship between the semantic category (living or non-living) of the words and target location. However, subjects were instructed to ignore the words, and a post-experiment questionnaire confirmed that they remained unaware of the word-target relationship. In all three experiments, given some practice on the task, response times were faster when target appeared at likely ( p = 0.8 ), compared to unlikely ( p = 0.2 ) locations, in relation to lateral word category. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed that this effect was driven by semantic encoding of the irrelevant words, and not by repetition of individual stimuli. Theoretical implications of this finding are discussed.
Lambert
A J
AJ
Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand. a.lambert@auckland.ac.nz
Sumich
A L
AL
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013028:Space Perception; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014794:Visual Fields