Implicit processing of the subliminal information during insight problem-solving

意识控制之外的内隐信息对认知起着重要作用。这一发现主要来自对低水平认知的研究，如知觉和行动。本研究探讨了内隐信息在问题解决和学习等高阶认知中的作用。第一个是考察在问题解决过程中呈现的潜意识提示信息是否促进了被试在洞察力问题解决中的表现。第二个实验是研究问题解决者的潜意识刺激的最佳呈现尺寸。第三项是考察潜意识刺激的呈现是否改变了问题解决者的眼动。这些实验在实验组和控制组之间都没有显著差异。我们还进行了额外的实验，以考察无意识受试者的行为在空间问题解决和技能学习中的作用。在空间问题解决中，被试在问题解决过程中无意识地改变了自己的手势，从而产生了与问题解决阶段相关的信息。在技能学习中，当受试者开发出更详细的策略时，她会下意识地控制任务设置。

Implicit information out of the conscious control plays important roles for cognition. This finding has been obtained mainly from the research on lower-level cognition, such as perception and action. This study explored the role of implicit information in higher-order cognition, such as problem-solving and learning.We conducted three experiments. The first was to examine whether the subliminal hint information presented during the problem-solving facilitated subjects' performance in insight problem-solving. The second was to investigate the best presentation size of the subliminal stimulus for problem-solvers. The third was to examine whether the presentation of the subliminal stimulus changed the problem-solvers' eye movement. None of the experiments showed significant differences between the experimental and control groups.We conducted additional experiments to investigate roles of the unconscious subjects' actions in spatial problem-solving and skill learning. In spatial problem-solving, subjects unconsciously changed their gestures during problem-solving, which produced the information relevant to the phase of problem-solving. In skill learning, a subject unconsciously controled the task setting when she developed a more elaborated strategy.