The Operations of Conscious and Unconscious Memory: Evidence from Different Repetition Effects in Different Implicit Tests

Conscious and unconscious forms of memory were explored in implicit tests of word-stem completion, word association, and word-identification by examining how the two forms of memory within each test, estimated by a post-test dissociation procedure, were influenced by repetition effects involved in the manipulations of level-of-processing (LoP) and association at study. Results show that LoP and association produced positive effects, associated with different repetition effects following shallow processing in different tests, on estimates of conscious memory. On the other hand, LoP and association produced different effects on estimates of unconscious memory in different tests, accompanied by a repetition-inhibition effect following deep and association conditions in the word-identification test. The results of the present study are discussed with a two-process approach to conscious and unconscious memories.