Attention and Consciousness: Can attention be captured in the absence of awareness?

Research shows that attention can be attracted by cues, even if we are not aware of them. There is also evidence to suggest objects we are not aware of capture attention. Here we aim to further explore these two proposals. Experiment 1 tested whether attention could be captured by an onset cue masked from awareness using Continuous Flash Suppression. We also tested if stimuli that we are not aware of can activate appropriate representations to be marked as old. Participants were presented with a subliminal array of stimuli. An onset stimulus was added subliminally (aim 1) or supraliminally (aim2). In both instances, it was hypothesized that the onset stimulus should capture attention. Attention capture by the onset would infer that subliminal onsets can capture attention, and subliminal objects can be marked as old. However, results indicate that an onset stimulus needs to be consciously perceived to capture attention. Furthermore, subliminal stimuli could not be marked as old by cognitive systems. Experiment 2 aimed to replicate an object-based attention effect in the absence of awareness, by masking objects from awareness. Results show that visible objects captured attention, but masked objects did not. In conjunction both experiments demonstrate that through the introduction of a mask, objects that we are not aware of fail to capture our attention