Neuroscience

Perception

Operating system

Unconscious mind

Epistemology

Psychoanalysis

Machine learning

Philosophy

Cognition

Cognitive psychology

Psychology

Computer science

Bivariate analysis

Process (computing)

Contingency

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie)

Studies of unconscious mental processes often compare a performance measure (e.g., some assessment of perception or memory) with a measure of awareness (e.g., a verbal report or forced-choice response) of the critical cue or contingency taken either concurrently or separately. The resulting patterns of bivariate data across participants lend themselves to several analytic approaches for inferring the existence of unconscious mental processes, but it is rare for researchers to consider the underlying generative processes that might cause these patterns. We show that bivariate data are generally insufficient to discriminate single-process models, with a unitary latent process determining both performance and awareness, from dual-process models, comprising distinct latent processes for performance and awareness. Future research attempting to isolate and investigate unconscious processes will need to employ richer types of data and analyses.

The Challenge of Inferring Unconscious Mental Processes