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Updated: Dec 23, 2025

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

Task-induced attention load guides and gates unconscious semantic interference.

Shao-Min Hung^1,2, Daw-An Wu³, Shinsuke Shimojo^3,4

¹Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA. smhung@caltech.edu.

Nature Communications

|May 1, 2020

Summary

Attention load gates unconscious semantic processing. In low-load tasks, incongruent stimuli slow responses, but this effect disappears in high-load tasks, demonstrating attentional control over unconscious processing.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

The relationship between attention and conscious perception is well-established.
The influence of attention on unconscious, high-level semantic processing remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether attention load modulates unconscious semantic processing.
To determine if attentional mechanisms control access to abstract and high-level information during unconscious processing.

Main Methods:

Utilized a double Stroop paradigm with subliminal primes and supraliminal targets.
Manipulated task load by requiring participants to either name the target word (low-load) or its color (high-load).
Replicated findings using word-only and semantics-only stimuli to isolate semantic processing.

Main Results:

Incongruencies between prime and target slowed responses in low-load (word-naming) tasks.
This effect was absent in high-load (color-naming) tasks, indicating attention load gates unconscious processing.
Attentional modulation of semantic processing was observed in later, practiced trials of the color-naming task.

Conclusions:

Attentional load acts as a gatekeeper for unconscious semantic processing.
The findings support the task load hypothesis, showing that attentional demands influence the extent of unconscious information processing.
This study provides evidence for attentional modulation of abstract and high-level unconscious cognitive processes.