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# Subliminal Gestalt grouping: Evidence of perceptual grouping by proximity and similarity in absence of conscious perception

## Details

**Authors** Montoro et al.

**Year** 2014

**Publisher** Consciousness and Cognition

**Discipline** Cognitive Science

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.01.004) 
10.1016/j.concog.2014.01.004

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To explore the unconscious nature of some forms of grouping.

### What they found (results)

When masked, priming is not noticed by the subjects They concluded that their results demonstrated that there doesn’t need to be an aspect of consciousness in order to perceptually group something. There is an uncontrollable nature to Gestalt grouping.

## Commentary

### In short

This is notable in its similarity to the four patterns of mind —DSRP—that are happening within every thought one has, without their control. Note, the awareness of such patterns is of equal importance to their existence.

### In more detail

Montoro et. al. 2014 wrote on the subconsciousness of grouping, specifically Gestalt grouping that offers that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. They did two experiments, the first one was on grouping by proximity. They took 38 undergraduate students and had them complete two tasks: a masked priming task and a prime visibility discrimination task. For the masked priming task, the students completed a “forced-choice reaction time” task. They were told that they would see target lines displayed on the screen, and that they would then have to indicate either the vertical or horizontal orientation by pressing one of two buttons as fast as possible but to avoid making mistakes. For the prime visibility discrimination task, the participants were told to pay attention to the prime stimulus that was displayed between two masks, and to perform a “forced-choice discrimination” task indicating the horizontal or vertical orientation of that stimulus. They asked the participants afterwards what patterns they had seen on the screen before the experiment began, and none of the participants said that they had seen any horizontal or vertical patterns. This means they weren’t aware of the priming. However, the priming significantly influenced the speed and accuracy of their reaction time. However, in the forced grouping task, the analyzed results showed that the subjects weren’t able to see the grouping patterns when they were masked.

For the second experiment, the focus was to test grouping by similarity. This experiment had 38 undergraduate students as the participants. “The stimuli and apparatus were identical to those of Experiment 1, with the sole exception that the Gestalt patterns consisted of a 6x array, forming rows or columns with elements of identical luminance.” Otherwise, the procedure and design was identical. The second experiment also concluded that there was a significant effect of priming, and the subjects also were not aware of their priming. For the forced grouping task, their analysis was the same as the first experiment. When masked, priming is not noticed by the subjects. They concluded that their results demonstrated that there doesn’t need to be an aspect of consciousness in order to perceptually group something. Overall, the article makes the point that there is an uncontrollable nature to Gestalt grouping. This is notable in its similarity to the four patterns of mind —DSRP—that are happening within every

10 A type of statistical test.

thought one has, without their control. Note, the awareness of such patterns is of equal importance to their existence.

**Patterns it shows** S

**How to cite this** Montoro et al. (2014). Subliminal Gestalt grouping: Evidence of perceptual grouping by proximity and similarity in absence of conscious perception. Consciousness and Cognition.