Does transliminality predict subperceptual information processing?
Neuroscience of consciousness January 1, 2025 Vince Polito, Stephanie Howarth, Andrew Roberts et al.
Anomalous experiences like hallucinations and mystical experiences are linked to delusional ideation, religiosity, and paranormal beliefs, which some researchers attribute to 'transliminality'—a sensitivity to stimuli entering consciousness. The strongest prior evidence came from a 2002 study finding transliminality predicted responses to subperceptual primes. This high-powered replication attempted to confirm that transliminality predicts identification of such primes and that this is due to stimulus sensitivity, not response bias. Participants completed a transliminality measure and an online card-guessing task with subperceptual primes. Results showed strong evidence against any association between transliminality and prime perception in both tasks, failing to support transliminality as a measure of subperceptual processing.