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Supraliminal but not subliminal distracters bias working memory recall.

ABSTRACT: Information of which observers are not consciously aware can nevertheless influence perceptual processes. Whether subliminal information might exert an influence on working memory (WM) representations is less clear, and relatively few studies have examined the interactions between subliminal and supraliminal information in WM. We present 3 experiments examining this issue. Experiments 1a and b replicated the finding that orientation stimuli can influence behavior subliminally in a visuomotor priming task. Experiments 2 and 3 used the same orientation stimuli, but participants had to remember a target orientation and report it back by adjusting a probe orientation after a memory delay. Before or after presentation of the target orientation, a subliminal or supraliminal distracter orientation was presented that was either irrelevant for task completion and never had to be reported (Experiment 2), or was relevant for task completion because it had to be reported on some trials (Experiment 3). In both experiments, presentation of a supraliminal distracter influenced WM recall of the target orientation. When the distracter was presented subliminally, however, there was no bias in orientation recall. These results suggest that information stored in WM is protected from influences of subliminal stimuli, while online information processing is modulated by subliminal information.

SUBMITTER: Wildegger T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4445384 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Supraliminal but not subliminal distracters bias working memory recall.

Wildegger Theresa T Myers Nicholas E NE Humphreys Glyn G Nobre Anna C AC

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 20150413 3

Information of which observers are not consciously aware can nevertheless influence perceptual processes. Whether subliminal information might exert an influence on working memory (WM) representations is less clear, and relatively few studies have examined the interactions between subliminal and supraliminal information in WM. We present 3 experiments examining this issue. Experiments 1a and b replicated the finding that orientation stimuli can influence behavior subliminally in a visuomotor pri ...[more]

PMID: 25867502

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Project description:Previous research has shown that emotions can alter our sense of ownership. Whether this relationship is modulated by differences in emotion experience and awareness, however, remains unclear. We investigated this by comparing the susceptibility to the rubber hand illusion (RHI) between participants who were either exposed to a low-arousing emotion induction (sadness) or placed in a neutral control group. Several factors that might influence this relationship were considered: dissociative symptoms were included to observe if a sadness induction led to a higher RHI score in participants scoring high in dissociation, as a result of detached emotion experience. Whether the level of awareness of the emotion mattered was also tested, as subliminal processing was shown to require less focal attention. Therefore, our sample (N = 122) was divided into three experimental groups: Sad pictures were presented to two of the three groups differing in presentation mode (subliminal: n = 40, supraliminal: n = 41), neutral pictures were presented supraliminally to the control group (n = 41). Additionally, the effects of slow (3 cm/s) and fast (30 cm/s) stroking, applied either synchronously or asynchronously, were examined as the comforting effects of stroking might interfere with the emotion induction. Results showed that the supraliminal sadness induction was associated with a stronger subjective illusion, but not with a higher proprioceptive drift compared to the subliminal induction. In addition, a stronger subjective illusion after fast and synchronous stroking was found compared to slow and asynchronous stroking. A significant proprioceptive drift was detected independent of group and stroking style. Both slow and synchronous stroking were perceived as more comforting than their respective counterparts. Participants with higher dissociative symptoms were more susceptible to the subjective illusion, especially in the supraliminal group in the synchronous condition. We concluded that individual differences in emotion experience are likely to play a role in body ownership. However, we cannot clarify at this stage whether differences in proprioception and the subjective illusion depend on the type of emotion experienced (e.g. different levels of arousal) and on concomitant changes in multisensory integration processes.

Dataset Information

Supraliminal but not subliminal distracters bias working memory recall.

Publications

Supraliminal but not subliminal distracters bias working memory recall.

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