Unconscious information integration: A replication and the role of spatial window in masking experiments

Abstract

Consciousness and high-level information integration have commonly been closely related to each other (Baars, 2002; Dehaene & Naccache, 2001; Tononi, 2004). Different results, however, have challenged this assumption by showing that information integration can occur for stimuli presented outside of conscious awareness. More recently, a re-examination of some of the data and different replication attempts questioned these results thereby again suggesting a close link between consciousness and information integration. The current study aimed at (i) replicating another piece of evidence for unconscious information integration and (ii) investigating if the size of the spatial window in which the information to be integrated is presented could explain why unconscious information integration sometimes fails. Results showed a reliable replication so providing further evidence for unconscious information integration in a subliminal priming paradigm. Furthermore, our results revealed that unconscious integration depends on the size of the spatial window in which the information is presented.