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Conditioning of masked nonwords generalizes to new targets and responses but not to evaluative measures.

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: A longstanding issue in psychology is whether learning can occur in the absence of awareness. A recent study reported a robust conditioning effect for pattern-masked nonwords, and a regression of participants’ conditioning effect on their ability to perceptually discriminate between these stimuli found a positive intercept and a nonsignificant slope (Greenwald & De Houwer, 2017). These results were interpreted as evidence for an unconscious learning process operating independently from—and in the absence of—awareness. The present study extended the set of awareness measures and addressed procedural limitations as well as analytical assumptions to scrutinize whether the finding indeed presents evidence for unconscious learning. We also tested the contributions of evaluative, perceptual, and motor processes to the conditioning effect. Results contradicted simple evaluative, perceptual, or motor accounts. While consistent with conditioning in the absence of awareness, results yielded evidence against their independence. We discuss alternative accounts of the effect as well as the assumptions underlying the unconscious-learning claim. Materials (data, analysis code, reproducible manuscript) are available at https://osf.io/3jud6. Public Significance Statement: The issue of unconscious learning is relevant for theories of basic cognitive processes. We investigated a finding suggesting that simple forms of learning can occur in the absence of awareness. We replicated the finding, but our data do not unequivocally support the conclusion that it is based on unconscious learning. Nevertheless, the finding exemplifies how our cognitive systems can spontaneously use barely perceptible regularities in the environment to help adapt our behavior.
DOI: 10.1037/xge0001878
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W7127076340
FWCI:
Cites: 60
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