In priming research, it is often argued that humans can discriminate stimuli outside consciousness. For example, the semantic meaning of numbers can be processed even when the numbers are so strongly masked that participants are not aware of them. These claims are typically based on a certain pattern of results: Direct measures indicate no conscious awareness of the masked stimuli, while indirect measures show clear priming effects of the same stimuli on reaction times or neurophysiological measures. From this pattern, preserved (unconscious) processing in the indirect task is concluded. However, this widely used standard reasoning is problematic and leads to spurious claims of unconscious processing. Such problems can be avoided by comparing sensitivities of direct and indirect measures. Many studies are affected by these problems, such that a reassessment of the literature is needed. Here, we investigated whether numbers can be processed unconsciously. In three experiments, we replicated and extended well-established effects of number priming over a wide range of stimulus visibilities. We then compared the standard reasoning to a sensitivity analysis, where direct and indirect effects are compared using the same metric. Results show that the sensitivities of indirect measures did not exceed those of direct measures, thereby indicating no evidence for preserved unconscious processing when awareness of the stimuli is low. Instead, it seems that at low visibility there is residual processing that affects direct and indirect measures to a similar degree. This suggests that similar processing modes cause those effects in direct and indirect measures.

在启动研究时，经常有人争辩说，人类可以区分意识之外的刺激。例如，即使数字被强烈地掩盖以至参与者不知道它们，也可以处理数字的语义。这些主张通常基于某种结果模式：直接措施表明没有意识地意识到被掩盖的刺激，而间接措施表明相同刺激对反应时间或神经生理措施具有明显的启动作用。根据这种模式，可以得出间接任务中保留的（无意识的）处理过程。但是，这种广泛使用的标准推理这是有问题的，并导致虚假的无意识加工要求。通过比较直接和间接措施的敏感性，可以避免此类问题。这些问题影响了许多研究，因此需要对文献进行重新评估。在这里，我们调查了数字是否可以在不知不觉中被处理。在三个实验中，我们在广泛的刺激可见性上复制并扩展了已确定的数字预备效应。然后，我们将标准推理与敏感性分析进行了比较，在敏感性分析中，使用相同的指标比较了直接和间接的影响。结果表明，间接措施的敏感性不超过直接措施的敏感性，因此，当刺激意识较低时，没有证据表明保留了无意识加工的证据。反而，在可见度较低的情况下，似乎存在残留处理，这些残留处理会以相似的程度影响直接和间接测量。这表明相似的处理模式会直接或间接地导致那些影响。