Abstract
Part of the sensory information is processed by our central nervous system without conscious perception. Subconscious processing has been shown to be capable of triggering motor reactions. In the present study, we asked the question whether visual information, which is not consciously perceived, could influence decision-making in a choice reaction task. Ten healthy subjects (28±5 years) executed two different experimental protocols. In the Motor reaction protocol, a visual target cue was shown on a computer screen. Depending on the displayed cue, subjects had to either complete a reaching movement (go-condition) or had to abort the movement (stop-condition). The cue was presented with different display durations (20–160 ms). In the second Verbalization protocol, subjects verbalized what they experienced on the screen. Again, the cue was presented with different display durations. This second protocol tested for conscious perception of the visual cue. The results of this study show that subjects achieved significantly more correct responses in the Motor reaction protocol than in the Verbalization protocol. This difference was only observed at the very short display durations of the visual cue. Since correct responses in the Verbalization protocol required conscious perception of the visual information, our findings imply that the subjects performed correct motor responses to visual cues, which they were not conscious about. It is therefore concluded that humans may reach decisions based on subconscious visual information in a choice reaction task.
Highlights
A question that fascinates both psychologists and scientists interested in motor control is whether our behaviour can be influenced by sensory information that is not consciously perceived
-called ‘subliminal priming studies’, where a subliminal prime is presented before a supraliminal target cue, have shown that responses can be facilitated or inhibited by prime stimuli presented below the threshold for conscious perception [1,2,3]
We argued that if subjects were able to perform the Motor reaction protocol correctly in the absence of conscious perception, this would indicate the capability of the subjects to have correct action selection based on subconscious visual information
Summary
A question that fascinates both psychologists and scientists interested in motor control is whether our behaviour can be influenced by sensory information that is not consciously perceived. -called ‘subliminal priming studies’, where a subliminal prime is presented before a supraliminal target cue, have shown that responses can be facilitated or inhibited by prime stimuli presented below the threshold for conscious perception [1,2,3] In these studies, the visual stimulus is manipulated in order to affect the perceptibility and preclude conscious perception. The second, consciously perceivable stimulus, has often been used to trigger a specific reaction (e.g. when seeing a light a subject has to reach for a button as quickly as possible) and the previous weaker stimulus may bias the reaction (e.g. the reaction to the button may become quicker or slower than without the first cue) This biasing or priming was intensively studied using a simple reaction time task [3]. Changes in the reaction time in these studies were interpreted as evidence that subconscious visual information affects the motor reaction and plays a role for the execution of the motor response
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