Can the meaning of multiple words be integrated unconsciously?

Abstract

What are the limits of unconscious language processing? Can language circuits process simple grammatical constructions unconsciously and integrate the meaning of several unseen words? Using behavioural priming and electroencephalography (EEG), we studied a specific rule-based linguistic operation traditionally thought to require conscious cognitive control: the negation of valence. In a masked priming paradigm, two masked words were successively (Experiment 1) or simultaneously presented (Experiment 2), a modifier (‘not’/‘very’) and an adjective (e.g. ‘good’/‘bad’), followed by a visible target noun (e.g. ‘peace’/‘murder’). Subjects indicated whether the target noun had a positive or negative valence. The combination of these three words could either be contextually consistent (e.g. ‘very bad - murder’) or inconsistent (e.g. ‘not bad - murder’). EEG recordings revealed that grammatical negations could unfold partly unconsciously, as reflected in similar occipito-parietal N400 effects for conscious and unconscious three-word sequences forming inconsistent combinations. However, only conscious word sequences elicited P600 effects, later in time. Overall, these results suggest that multiple unconscious words can be rapidly integrated and that an unconscious negation can automatically ‘flip the sign’ of an unconscious adjective. These findings not only extend the limits of subliminal combinatorial language processes, but also highlight how consciousness modulates the grammatical integration of multiple words.

Perceptual awareness and its neural basis: bridging experimental and theoretical paradigms

“…For example, Railo et al [67] argue that the visual awareness negativity component that occurs around 200 ms after stimulus presentation might be associated with conscious perception, and late positivity that occurs around 300-400 ms after stimulus presentation might be associated with conscious access (see also [25]). Another compelling example of study on ERP components related to both unconscious and conscious language-related visual processing is provided by the work of van Gaal et al [17]. Also, functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have contributed to shed light on the neural basis of perceptual awareness, such as those concerning visual masking (see [15] for a review), perceptual rivalry [68] and attentional blink [69].…”

“…Several of the contributed articles report new experimental findings supporting theoretical claims, hypotheses and predictions [17,38,47,56,59]. Others emphasize review and theoretical aspects; however, they are systematically and critically related to relevant empirical findings with different experimental paradigms.…”

“…[11,[14][15][16]; see also [17]). Iconic memory has explicitly been associated with (phenomenal) consciousness in relatively recent theoretical developments [18][19][20][21].…”

“…Toward the end of the 1990s, Stanislas Dehaene et al [45] proposed the global neuronal workspace (GNW) model, which characterized the GW in terms of plausible brain systems and processes, in the light of joint psychophysical, neuroimaging and computational modelling investigations (see [53] for a review; see also [17,25,47]). The GNW model has also led to the proposal of a taxonomy with unconscious, preconscious and conscious levels of representation [15] in which the preconscious level provides an alternative to the notion of phenomenal consciousness proposed by Block.…”

“…Two crucial and complementary aspects of awareness research are given by the understanding of the constraints leading to conscious contents, and the understanding of the different properties and mechanisms of conscious and unconscious processing (for this aspect, see in particular [14,17]). Both these aspects are considered in depth, together with relevant foundational (see in particular [52]) and methodological (see in particular [92]) problems.…”