Attentional sensitization of conscious and unconscious priming - Specifying top-down mechanisms

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Unconscious automatic processes are traditionally thought to occur autonomously and independently of top-down control. In challenging this traditional view, we propose an attentional sensitization model, which assumes that attentional influences originating from task sets enhance task-relevant automatic processes while attenuating task-irrelevant automatic processes. Previous work of this project showed that a prototypical example of an automatic process, subliminal priming elicited by unconsciously perceived masked stimuli, depends on currently activated task sets. In a continuation of this project, we want to further specify the proposed attentional sensitization mechanism and extend the empirical testing of our model to the domains of unconscious spatial and emotional processing using behavioral and neurophysiological measures (ERPs, fMRI). In particular, we investigate whether task sets modulate unconscious visual perception at a very fine-grained level: Depending on the processes in question (spatial vs. emotional) and the type of stimuli (words vs. pictures), task sets should have very specific influences on unconscious visual processing. In addition to the induction task procedure that we developed previously, we use hypnosis, subliminal task cues and dual stream rapid serial visual presentation to shed light on the generality of attentional influences on unconscious visual perception.