Exclusion failure does not demonstrate unconscious perception II: evidence from a forced-choice exclusion task.
Systematic failure to perform exclusion (making a response that opposes the participant's natural inclinations) for briefly displayed, masked words has been interpreted as evidence of unconscious perception. The present study required participants to make a forced-choice exclusion after viewing masked word targets. The forced-choice exclusion task was properly performed in all experiments, in contrast to previous studies that have utilized stem-completion as a dependent variable. The exclusion failure effects interpreted as unconscious perception in earlier studies appear to be caused by an insensitive dependent variable (stem-completion) rather than unconscious perception.
Fisk
Gary D
GD
Department of Psychology and Sociology, Georgia Southwestern State University, 800 Wheatley Street, Americus, GA 31709, USA. gdf@canes.gsw.edu <gdf@canes.gsw.edu>
Haase
Steven J
SJ
D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D003243:Consciousness; D006801:Humans; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception