Spatial distortion induced by imperceptible visual stimuli

► We examined the attentional repulsion and attraction effects when the positional cue is made invisible with visual masking. ► Significant repulsion and attraction effects were observed with masked cue presented before/after target stimuli. ► The effects depended on the actual position the cue was presented, but not where observer guessed the cue existed. ► The effects were reduced in the masked than unmasked condition, suggesting possibility of different underlying mechanisms. ► The results suggest that visual awareness of the cue is not necessarily associated with these spatial distortion effects.