本研究目的是考察视知觉无意识加工的特点，主要使用闽下启动技术，以数字和几何图形为实验材料，用E-prime心理实验软件控制刺激的呈现，就无意识知觉能否达到语义水平上的加工、视知觉无意识加工中是否存在形状优势效应和整体优势效应等问题进行了探讨。研究发现:
1.当启动数字和靶数字属于相同或不同的刺激序列，都发现了无意识呈现的数字对靶数字加工的促进或抑制作用，提示视知觉无意识能够达到语义水平的加工。
2.对靶图形整体形状的判断不受启动图形整体颜色线索的作用，而对整体颜色的判断确受启动图形整体形状线索的影响，提示视知觉无意识加工具有形状优势效应。
3.对靶图形整体颜色的判断受启动图形整体形状信息的影响，而对靶图形局部颜色的判断则不受启动刺激整体形状信息的影响，提示形状优势效应与任务所涉及的注意范围密切相关。
4.对靶图形局部颜色的判断不受启动图形整体形状影响，相反对靶图形局部形状的加工却受启动刺激整体形状的影响。因此，视觉无意识对图形加工的整体优势效应很可能与任务所涉及到的信息(形状/颜色)加工通道有密切联系。
5.当对局部形状特征进行判断时，启动图形和靶图形整体形状相同时的反应时比两者不同时的反应时还要长一些，提示在视知觉无意识中对局部形状特征的注意很可能涉及对整体形状特征加工侧抑制的过程。

Whether masked primes could activate cognitive processes in semantic level without gaining access to consciousness and whether there were form dominance and global dominance in visual unconscious processing were studied mainly by subliminal priming technique. The main results are as follows:
1 When the primes and the targets belonged to the same or two different stimulus serials, the unseen numerical prime could facilitate or inhibit the subsequent processing of the target, demonstrating the existence of unconscious processing in semantic level.
2 The global color cue of the prime had no effect on the global shape discrimination to the target while the global shape cue could facilitate or inhibit the subsequent processing of the global color of the target, indicating that form dominance in visual unconscious processing did exist.
3 The unseen global shape could facilitate or inhibit the subsequent processing of the global color of the target, but had no effect on the local color discrimination, indicating that form dominance was tuned by selective attention.
4 The global shape of the prime could affect the responses to the local line orientation of the target, but could not do to the local color, suggesting that global shape dominance was related to the form and color pathways of visual processing.
5 When participants discriminated the target line orientation, they responded more slowly in congruent trials (the global shapes of the prime and the target were same) than in incongruent trials (the global shapes were different), indicating that a bias inhibition to the global shape of the prime might be involved in a local shape discrimination task to the target.