van Gaal Simon, Ridderinkhof K Richard, van den Wildenberg Wery P M, Lamme Victor A F
Cognitive Neuroscience Group, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, Amsterdam 1018 WB, The Netherlands.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2009 Aug;35(4):1129-39. doi: 10.1037/a0013551.
Theories about the functional relevance of consciousness commonly posit that higher order cognitive control functions, such as response inhibition, require consciousness. To test this assertion, the authors designed a masked stop-signal paradigm to examine whether response inhibition could be triggered and initiated by masked stop signals, which inform participants to stop an action they have begun. In 2 experiments, masked stop signals were observed to occasionally result in full response inhibition as well as to yield a slow down in the speed of responses that were not inhibited. The magnitude of this subliminally triggered response time slowing effect correlated with the efficiency measure (stop signal reaction time) of response inhibition across participants. Thus, response inhibition can be triggered unconsciously-more so in individuals who are good inhibitors and under conditions that are associated with efficient response inhibition. These results indicate that in contradiction to common theorizing, inhibitory control processes can operate outside awareness.
关于意识功能相关性的理论通常假定，诸如反应抑制等高阶认知控制功能需要意识。为了验证这一论断，作者设计了一种掩蔽停止信号范式，以检验掩蔽停止信号是否能触发并启动反应抑制，这些信号告知参与者停止他们已经开始的动作。在两项实验中，观察到掩蔽停止信号偶尔会导致完全的反应抑制，并且会使未被抑制的反应速度减慢。这种潜意识触发的反应时间减慢效应的大小与参与者反应抑制的效率指标（停止信号反应时间）相关。因此，反应抑制可以在无意识的情况下被触发——在抑制能力强的个体以及与高效反应抑制相关的条件下更是如此。这些结果表明，与通常的理论相反，抑制控制过程可以在意识之外运作。
