Choose your own PAS? Quantitative and qualitative validity evidence for the Perceptual Awareness Scale
Franco-Martínez, A., Ferrer-Mendieta, A., Peiró Lanchares, C., Vadillo, M. A., & Garre-Frutos, F.
PsyArXivPreprint
Abstract
One of the most widely used measures of awareness in unconscious processing studies is the Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS). Although specific category labels and detailed instructions were suggested since its first formulation, the PAS is currently proposed as a methodological approach rather than a fixed scale. Consequently, authors tend to adapt this scale to their experimental tasks often without specifying their PAS properties or without providing adequate justification for the modifications. In this work, we tested how "choosing your own PAS" affects response-process validity both quantitatively and qualitatively, in the same unconscious working memory (WM) task as in Franco-Martínez et al. (2026) replication. In a preregistered 2×2×2 between-subjects design (N = 176), we manipulated (a) the Version of the PAS labels, (b) whether Examples were provided, and (c) whether labels appeared in the onscreen Display. In a post-experiment PAS questionnaire participants were asked to qualitatively report how they recalled and interpreted the scale. The typical effect of interest and its reliability were robust under the Version and Examples manipulations, but presenting the New Version and/or with Examples increased the proportion of "unconscious" trials, enhancing statistical power. Although the effect of interest increased in the ScaleOnly Display, the qualitative evidence suggests participants in this condition tend to forget the PAS labels and ultimately use them differently from intended. Finally, we provide practical recommendations for the use of PAS and a post-experiment PAS questionnaire to evaluate its validity.