Subjective measures of consciousness in artificial grammar learning task

Consciousness can be measured in various ways, but different measures often yield different conclusions about the extent to which awareness relates to performance. Here, we compare five different subjective measures of awareness in the context of an artificial grammar learning task. Participants (N = 217) expressed their subjective awareness of rules using one of five different scales: confidence ratings (CRs), post-decision wagering (PDW), feeling of warmth (FOW), rule awareness (RAS), and continuous scale (SDS). All scales were equally sensitive to conscious knowledge. PDW, however, was affected by risk aversion, and both RAS and SDS applied different minimal criteria for rule awareness. CR seems to capture the largest range of consciousness, but failed to indicate unconscious knowledge with the guessing criterion. We close by discussing the theoretical implications of scale sensitivity and propose that CR’s unique features enable (in conjunction with RAS and FOW) a finer assessment of subjective states of awareness.

► The paper focuses on comparison between different subjective measures of consciousness.
► Five measures of rule awareness were applied in the artificial grammar learning task.
► The results show differences between scales in the response frequency distributions.
► Differences in performance were observed between the measures for each scale point.
► Theoretical analysis of scale sensitivity was proposed.