Can the meaning of multiple words be integrated unconsciously?
Open accessAbstract
What are the limits of unconscious language processing? Can language circuits process simple grammatical constructions unconsciously and integrate the meaning of several unseen words? Using behavioural priming and electroencephalography (EEG), we studied a specific rule-based linguistic operation traditionally thought to require conscious cognitive control: the negation of valence. In a masked priming paradigm, two masked words were successively (Experiment 1) or simultaneously presented (Experiment 2), a modifier (‘not’/‘very’) and an adjective (e.g. ‘good’/‘bad’), followed by a visible target noun (e.g. ‘peace’/‘murder’). Subjects indicated whether the target noun had a positive or negative valence. The combination of these three words could either be contextually consistent (e.g. ‘very bad - murder’) or inconsistent (e.g. ‘not bad - murder’). EEG recordings revealed that grammatical negations could unfold partly unconsciously, as reflected in similar occipito-parietal N400 effects for conscious and unconscious three-word sequences forming inconsistent combinations. However, only conscious word sequences elicited P600 effects, later in time. Overall, these results suggest that multiple unconscious words can be rapidly integrated and that an unconscious negation can automatically ‘flip the sign’ of an unconscious adjective. These findings not only extend the limits of subliminal combinatorial language processes, but also highlight how consciousness modulates the grammatical integration of multiple words.
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- Authors
- van Gaal, S., Naccache, L., Meuwese, J. D. I., van Loon, A. M., Leighton, A. H., Cohen, L., & Dehaene, S.
- Affiliations
- INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- Inserm (FR)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Université Paris-Sud (FR)
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2014-05-05
- Volume
- 369
- Issue
- 1641
- Pages
- 20130212
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC3965166
- OpenAlex
- W2143080319
- Cited by
- 139
- References
- 77
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 5.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
- Keywords
- subliminal perception, masked priming, grammatical negation, N400, P600, consciousness, semantic integration, cognitive control
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Electroencephalography, Humans, Models, Neurological, Semantics, Unconscious, Psychology, Comprehension
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