Task-induced attention load guides and gates unconscious semantic interference

Shao-Min Hung,Shinsuke Shimojo,Daw-An Wu

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15439-x

Shao-Min Hung, Shinsuke Shimojo + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15439-x

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Abstract

The tight relationship between attention and conscious perception has been extensively researched in the past decades. However, whether attentional modulation extended to unconscious processes remained largely unknown, particularly when it came to abstract and high-level processing. Here we use a double Stroop paradigm to demonstrate that attention load gates unconscious semantic processing. We find that word and color incongruencies between a subliminal prime and a supraliminal target cause slower responses to non-Stroop target words—but only if the task is to name the target word (low-load task), and not if the task is to name the target’s color (high-load task). The task load hypothesis is confirmed by showing that the word-induced incongruence effect can be detected in the color-naming task, but only in the late, practiced trials. We further replicate this task-induced attentional modulation phenomenon in separate experiments with colorless words (word-only) and words with semantic relationship but no orthographic similarities (semantics-only).

Highlights

The tight relationship between attention and conscious perception has been extensively researched in the past decades
Whether attention is treated as something which is directed to a specific entity or as something utilized as general cognitive resources, studies have established the benefits of attention in various tasks over the past decades
Orienting attention to a specific location improves visual performance[5] and even boosts stimulus contrast[6]. These findings suggest that attentional modulation on visual information begins very early in the visual pathway and affects rudimentary visual features

Summary

Introduction

The tight relationship between attention and conscious perception has been extensively researched in the past decades. The sharp differences between Experiments 1 and 2 showed a lack of unconscious interference when the nature of the task was of high load (i.e. the classical Stroop effect), indicating the possibility that unconscious and conscious processes were competing with attentional resources.

Results

Conclusion