ABSTRACT: Introduces a linear regression method for investigating unconscious
cognition. For words that were obscured by simultaneous dichoptic masking, indirect
effects (semantic priming) and direct effects (perceptual identification) were
assessed in 20 experiments (total N = 2,026). When measures of both indirect and
direct effects have rational zero points, a statistically significant intercept
in the indirect-on-direct-measure regression shows that (a) the indirect effect
occurred in the absence of the direct effect, and (b) unconscious cognition is
involved. For a position discrimination task, but not for an evaluative decision
task, indirect-on-direct regression showed the significant intercept effect. Although
small in magnitude, this intercept effect provides the statistically most secure
finding yet obtained of a much-sought and controversial data pattern--indirect
effect with no direct effect. With one added assumption (which appears plausible
for the present data), this pattern indicates that unconscious cognition is dissociated
from (i.e., occurs separately from) conscious cognition.