article · Neuroscience of Consciousness · 2025
Replicating the unconscious working memory effect: a multisite Registered Report
Alicia Franco-Martínez, Ricardo Rey-Sáez, Jesús Adrián‐Ventura, Pietro Amerio, Ana Baciero, Amine Bennis, Fredrik Bergström, Axel Cleeremans, Laura Contu, Roberto Dell'Acqua, Xinping Deng, Fatma Nur Dolu, Filippo Gambarota, Yi Gao, Francisco Garre-Frutos, Anna Grubert, Ana María Aranda Hernando, José A Hinojosa, Asaf Hoory, ZhiKun Hou, Shao-Min Hung, Aine Ito, Mikel Jimenez, Alexandra I Kosachenko, Merve Kulaksız, Daryl Y H Lee, Elmas Merve Malas, Simone Malejka, Pedro R. Montoro, Liad Mudrik, Yuri G. Pavlov, Gabriele Pesimena, Antonio Prieto, Dobromir Rahnev, Lais Ringenberg, Alejandro Sandoval‐Lentisco, Akira Sarodo, Maor Schreiber, Paola Sessa, Pablo Solana, Dmitry Tarasov, Miriam Maeztu Tortajada, Kai Xue, Ziqian Xue, Yunxuan Zheng, Merve Çinici, David Shanks, David Soto, Miguel A Vadillo
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Abstract
Although in recent years some studies have found evidence suggesting that working memory (WM) may operate on unconscious perceptual contents, decisive demonstrations of the existence of unconscious WM are lacking. In the present Registered Report, we replicate the first study on this topic by Soto et al. (Working memory without consciousness. <i>Curr Biol</i> 2011;<b>21</b>:R912-3.): a visual discrimination task asking participants to report the direction in which a subliminal Gabor grating was rotated after a 2-s delay. We acquired a multisite sample from 19 laboratories, with a larger number of participants (<i>N =</i> 531) and trials (720 in two sessions) than those typically used in previous studies. As a result, a large-sample, international, and open-access dataset is now available for researchers and future analyses. Furthermore, some minimal baseline requirements were guaranteed for the experimental task (i.e. number of valid trials, motivation, and consistent labels for the Perceptual Awareness Scale). The results showed (1) above-chance WM performance in cue-present trials reported as unseen (.55 accuracy), (2) a significant positive correlation between WM performance and cue detection sensitivity (<i>r</i> = .228), and (3) a significant above-chance intercept in the regression of performance on sensitivity (<i>β</i> <sub>0</sub> = .521). These findings suggest that WM can operate on unconscious representations, although it remains positively associated with perceptual sensitivity. Crucially, because measurement error could compromise the interpretation of these three results, we provide evidence for our measures' excellent reliability and, more fundamentally, for their validity.
Cite this paper
Franco-Martínez, A., Rey-Sáez, R., Adrián‐Ventura, J., Amerio, P., Baciero, A., Bennis, A., Bergström, F., Cleeremans, A., Contu, L., Dell'Acqua, R., Deng, X., Dolu, F. N., Gambarota, F., Gao, Y., Garre-Frutos, F., Grubert, A., Hernando, A. M. A., Hinojosa, J. A., Hoory, A., . . . Vadillo, M. A. (2025). Replicating the unconscious working memory effect: a multisite Registered Report. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2026(1), niaf046. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niaf046
Franco-Martínez, Alicia, et al. “Replicating the unconscious working memory effect: a multisite Registered Report.” Neuroscience of Consciousness, vol. 2026, no. 1, 2025, p. niaf046, https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niaf046.
Franco-Martínez, Alicia, Ricardo Rey-Sáez, Jesús Adrián‐Ventura, Pietro Amerio, Ana Baciero, Amine Bennis, Fredrik Bergström, et al. 2025. “Replicating the unconscious working memory effect: a multisite Registered Report.” Neuroscience of Consciousness 2026 (1): niaf046. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niaf046.
Franco-Martínez, A. et al. (2025) ‘Replicating the unconscious working memory effect: a multisite Registered Report’, Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2026(1), p. niaf046. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niaf046.
@article{francomartinez2025replicating,
title = {{Replicating the unconscious working memory effect: a multisite Registered Report}},
author = {Franco-Martínez, Alicia and Rey-Sáez, Ricardo and Adrián‐Ventura, Jesús and Amerio, Pietro and Baciero, Ana and Bennis, Amine and Bergström, Fredrik and Cleeremans, Axel and Contu, Laura and Dell'Acqua, Roberto and Deng, Xinping and Dolu, Fatma Nur and Gambarota, Filippo and Gao, Yi and Garre-Frutos, Francisco and Grubert, Anna and Hernando, Ana María Aranda and Hinojosa, José A and Hoory, Asaf and Hou, ZhiKun and Hung, Shao-Min and Ito, Aine and Jimenez, Mikel and Kosachenko, Alexandra I and Kulaksız, Merve and Lee, Daryl Y H and Malas, Elmas Merve and Malejka, Simone and Montoro, Pedro R. and Mudrik, Liad and Pavlov, Yuri G. and Pesimena, Gabriele and Prieto, Antonio and Rahnev, Dobromir and Ringenberg, Lais and Sandoval‐Lentisco, Alejandro and Sarodo, Akira and Schreiber, Maor and Sessa, Paola and Solana, Pablo and Tarasov, Dmitry and Tortajada, Miriam Maeztu and Xue, Kai and Xue, Ziqian and Zheng, Yunxuan and Çinici, Merve and Shanks, David and Soto, David and Vadillo, Miguel A},
journal = {Neuroscience of Consciousness},
volume = {2026},
number = {1},
pages = {niaf046},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1093/nc/niaf046}
}Made from the index record. Check names, capitalisation and page numbers against the paper. Need another style? AI for Research has over 10,000.