Replicating the unconscious working memory effect: a multisite Registered Report

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Perception

Background:

• Previous research suggests working memory (WM) might process unconscious information, but conclusive evidence is lacking.
• The existence of unconscious WM is a significant question in cognitive science.

Purpose of the Study:

• To rigorously replicate and test the existence of unconscious working memory.
• To investigate if working memory can operate on perceptual contents that are not consciously perceived.

Main Methods:

• A large-scale, multisite replication of Soto et al.'s (2011) study using a visual discrimination task.
• Participants (N=531) performed a task involving subliminal Gabor gratings with a 2-second delay.
• Data collected under standardized conditions, including motivation and Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS) reliability.

Main Results:

• Above-chance working memory performance (.55 accuracy) was observed for stimuli reported as unseen.
• A significant positive correlation was found between WM performance and cue detection sensitivity (r=.228).
• A significant above-chance intercept (β₀=.521) in the regression of performance on sensitivity indicated unconscious WM contribution.

Conclusions:

• Working memory can operate on unconscious perceptual representations.
• Unconscious working memory performance is positively associated with perceptual sensitivity.
• The study provides reliable and valid evidence for unconscious working memory operations.