Unconscious perception and the classic, dissociation paradigm: A new angle?

Abstract

Reingold and Merikle's (1988, 1990) critique of the classic dissociation paradigm identified the exhaustiveness, exclusiveness, null sensitivity, and task comparability issues as inherent problems that severely undermine the utility of this paradigm. Snodgrass, Bernat, and Shevrin (2004) attempt to provide solutions to these problems and claim to propose a novel conceptual and methodological framework for the study of unconscious perception. Unfortunately, the present analysis indicates that the approach proposed by Snodgrass et al. involves the same problems as do previous implementations of the classic dissociation paradigm.