The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility Measures
Research on unconscious processing has been a valuable source of evidence in psycholinguistics for shedding light on the cognitive architecture of language. The automaticity of syntactic processing, in particular, has long been debated. One strategy to establish this automaticity involves detecting...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ubiquity Press
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Cognition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/419 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1823859345579835392 |
|---|---|
| author | David Hernández-Gutiérrez Miguel A. Sorrel David R. Shanks Miguel A. Vadillo |
| author_facet | David Hernández-Gutiérrez Miguel A. Sorrel David R. Shanks Miguel A. Vadillo |
| author_sort | David Hernández-Gutiérrez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research on unconscious processing has been a valuable source of evidence in psycholinguistics for shedding light on the cognitive architecture of language. The automaticity of syntactic processing, in particular, has long been debated. One strategy to establish this automaticity involves detecting significant syntactic priming effects in tasks that limit conscious awareness of the stimuli. Criteria for assessing unconscious priming include the visibility (d’) of masked words not differing significantly from zero and no positive correlation between visibility and priming. However, such outcomes could also arise for strictly methodological reasons, such as low statistical power in visibility tests or low reliability of dependent measures. In this study, we aimed to address these potential limitations. Through meta-analysis and Bayesian re-analysis, we find evidence of low statistical power and of participants having above-chance awareness of ‘subliminal’ words. Moreover, we conducted reliability analyses on a dataset from Berkovitch and Dehaene (2019), finding that low reliability in both syntactic priming and visibility tasks may better explain the absence of a significant correlation. Overall, these findings cast doubt on the validity of previous conclusions regarding the automaticity of syntactic processing based on masked priming effects. The results underscore the importance of revisiting the methods employed when exploring unconscious processing in future psycholinguistic research. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a9bb69524413425d8f9fd47c01105aac |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2514-4820 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-a9bb69524413425d8f9fd47c01105aac2025-02-11T05:36:32ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Cognition2514-48202025-01-0181131310.5334/joc.419418The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility MeasuresDavid Hernández-Gutiérrez0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3723-1075Miguel A. Sorrel1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5234-5217David R. Shanks2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4600-6323Miguel A. Vadillo3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8421-816XDepartamento de Psicología Básica, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL)Departamento de Psicología Social y Metodología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de MadridDivision of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College LondonDepartamento de Psicología Básica, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de MadridResearch on unconscious processing has been a valuable source of evidence in psycholinguistics for shedding light on the cognitive architecture of language. The automaticity of syntactic processing, in particular, has long been debated. One strategy to establish this automaticity involves detecting significant syntactic priming effects in tasks that limit conscious awareness of the stimuli. Criteria for assessing unconscious priming include the visibility (d’) of masked words not differing significantly from zero and no positive correlation between visibility and priming. However, such outcomes could also arise for strictly methodological reasons, such as low statistical power in visibility tests or low reliability of dependent measures. In this study, we aimed to address these potential limitations. Through meta-analysis and Bayesian re-analysis, we find evidence of low statistical power and of participants having above-chance awareness of ‘subliminal’ words. Moreover, we conducted reliability analyses on a dataset from Berkovitch and Dehaene (2019), finding that low reliability in both syntactic priming and visibility tasks may better explain the absence of a significant correlation. Overall, these findings cast doubt on the validity of previous conclusions regarding the automaticity of syntactic processing based on masked priming effects. The results underscore the importance of revisiting the methods employed when exploring unconscious processing in future psycholinguistic research.https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/419unconsciouslanguagemasked syntactic primingreliabilitymeta-analysis |
| spellingShingle | David Hernández-Gutiérrez Miguel A. Sorrel David R. Shanks Miguel A. Vadillo The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility Measures Journal of Cognition unconscious language masked syntactic priming reliability meta-analysis |
| title | The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility Measures |
| title_full | The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility Measures |
| title_fullStr | The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility Measures |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility Measures |
| title_short | The Conscious Side of ‘Subliminal’ Linguistic Priming: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Reliability Analysis of Visibility Measures |
| title_sort | conscious side of subliminal linguistic priming a systematic review with meta analysis and reliability analysis of visibility measures |
| topic | unconscious language masked syntactic priming reliability meta-analysis |
| url | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/419 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidhernandezgutierrez theconscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures AT miguelasorrel theconscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures AT davidrshanks theconscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures AT miguelavadillo theconscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures AT davidhernandezgutierrez conscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures AT miguelasorrel conscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures AT davidrshanks conscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures AT miguelavadillo conscioussideofsubliminallinguisticprimingasystematicreviewwithmetaanalysisandreliabilityanalysisofvisibilitymeasures |