The function of consciousness has often been investigated by looking at the cognitive processes that can (not) be performed without conscious awareness. The most important processes — historically and theoretically — in this context are semantic processing and information integration. Here, I will argue that a subliminal priming version of the same-different task is a perfect tool to investigate these processes because it (i) allows a clear separation between the stimuli that are consciously processed and those that remain unconscious, and (ii) requires the unconsciously presented stimuli to be integrated. An overview of the work that has used the subliminal same-different task to target these processes is presented, and some suggestions for how the task could be used in future work are made. The potential of the subliminal same-different task to elaborate on the cognitive architecture needed to successfully perform a same-different task is also discussed.

意识的功能通常通过观察在没有意识的情况下（不能）执行的认知过程来研究。在历史上和理论上，最重要的过程是语义处理和信息集成。在这里，我将争辩说，同一个任务的潜意识启动版本是研究这些过程的理想工具，因为它（i）可以将有意识地处理的刺激和保持无意识的刺激清晰地分开，以及（ii）需要无意识地呈现的刺激被整合。概述了使用阈下相同任务来针对这些过程的工作，并提出了有关如何在将来的工作中使用该任务的一些建议。