HIGHER-LEVEL INTEGRATIVE PROCESSING UNDER SUBLIMINAL CONDITIONS

Abstract

While earlier studies within the last decade proposed a wide range of semantic and/or integrative processing under subliminal conditions, recent studies suggest that subliminal processing is actually very limited. The current thesis assessed three types of subliminal integration that remained unchallenged: instrumental learning, the processing of same-different relationships, and the learning and generalization of task-priming. No evidence of higher-level subliminal integration was found. If anything, subliminal integration is only restricted to basic perceptual processes. However, integration involving semantics or involving distinct types of information may nevertheless occur implicitly.