Psychonomic bulletin & review
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Numerous studies have demonstrated that associative learning can affect visual cognition. In one such effect, search times for a target hidden among similar distractors are faster for repeated search configurations compared with novel configurations. This contextual cuing effect is particularly interesting, because researchers routinely have failed to find evidence of recognition of the repeated configurations, concluding that the effect is a form of nonconscious learning. ⋯ The data support the absence of a positive relationship between recognition and the cuing effect both at the participant and configuration level, the probability of which being a false negative is very low in a model assuming a single memory source drives learning and awareness. This was the case using both conventional and Bayesian analyses. The combination of this theoretical and empirical analysis suggests that contextual cuing is not dependent on cue recognition and provides evidence that it reflects a genuine form of nonconscious learning.