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A direct replication: Unconscious arithmetic processing
Author(s) -
Karpinski Andrew,
Briggs Jessie C.,
Yale Miriam
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2390
Subject(s) - subliminal stimuli , unconscious mind , psychology , replication (statistics) , subtraction , consciousness , social psychology , sample (material) , population , arithmetic , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , psychoanalysis , sociology , chemistry , demography , chromatography , neuroscience
Across two experiments involving four presentation times in total, Sklar et al. ( Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 109, 2012, 19614) found that complex subtraction equations can be solved without awareness of the equations. These findings challenge the current position that consciousness is necessary for performing abstract, rule‐following tasks. Given the important implications of their work, we aimed to directly replicate Sklar's findings using a larger sample ( n = 94) from a different population. Using continuous flash suppression, we investigated if people were able to solve an equation after subliminal (1,300 ms) exposure to it. We found evidence of unconscious subtraction consistent with Sklar et al., albeit the effect is weak. Critical review of our results and implications for further research are discussed.