title: Recognizing the unconscious.
abstract: Recognition memory enables us to discriminate whether an event has occurred in the past, and is widely interpreted to reflect the conscious retrieval of episodic traces or familiarity. Non-conscious mnemonic influences, such as repetition priming, are thought to have a negligible effect on standard tests of recognition memory. A major difficulty with this conclusion is that it is exclusively based on the results from experimental protocols that use stimulus materials available to conscious perception. In eight experiments (N = 144), we tested the necessity of mechanisms related to conscious perception for accurate recognition memory by manipulating observers' awareness of either the encoded event and/or the retrieval cues. Remarkably, observers made accurate objective and subjective recognition memory-guided judgments without visual awareness of the encoded events, retrieval cues or, most strikingly, both. These results demonstrate that non-conscious processes can drive accurate recognition memory, and are a significant challenge to neurobiological accounts centered on the conscious retrieval of episodic traces or familiarity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK. Electronic address: trevor.chong@ndcn.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Trevor T-J
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
authors.forename: Masud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Husain
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK. Electronic address: clive.rosenthal@clneuro.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Clive R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
mesh_terms: D003243:Consciousness; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D014474:Unconsciousness