Strongly masked content retained in memory made accessible through repetition.



Pang, Damian KF and Elntib, Stamatis
(2021) Strongly masked content retained in memory made accessible through repetition. Scientific reports, 11 (1). 10284-.

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.
[img] Text
Strongly masked content retained in memory made accessible through repetition.pdf - Published version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

A growing body of evidence indicates that information can be stored even in the absence of conscious awareness. Despite these findings, unconscious memory is still poorly understood with limited evidence for unconscious iconic memory storage. Here we show that strongly masked visual data can be stored and accumulate to elicit clear perception. We used a repetition method across a wide range of conditions (Experiment 1) and a more focused follow-up experiment with enhanced masking conditions (Experiment 2). Information was stored despite being masked, demonstrating that masking did not erase or overwrite memory traces but limited perception. We examined the temporal properties and found that stored information followed a gradual but rapid decay. Extraction of meaningful information was severely impaired after 300 ms, and most data was lost after 700 ms. Our findings are congruent with theories of consciousness that are based on an integration of subliminal information and support theoretical predictions based on the global workspace theory of consciousness, especially the existence of an implicit iconic memory buffer store.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Humans, Awareness, Memory, Perceptual Masking, Adult, Repetition Priming, Unconscious, Psychology
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 03 Nov 2021 16:24
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 21:25
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-89512-w
Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89512-w
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3142663