Unconscious and symbolic cues reflect an automatic shift of attentional orienting

Peripheral abrupt onset cues induce automatic shifts of attention, even if not consciously perceived. This study would examine the relationship between endogenous spatial orienting and unconscious perception, using a spatial cueing task. Three experiments assessed predictive, unpredictive or counterpredictive cues, that were rendered invisible by object substitution masking in half of the trials. The results show a facilitation in the attended (cued) location with both seen and unseen cues (experiments 1 and 2), and for targets presented in the unattended but cued location (experiment 3), suggesting that endogenous cues could evoke automatic shifts of attention, even if not consciously perceived.