Conscious Detection of Spoken Words Depends on Their Valence

We often fail to consciously hear important information while preoccupied with another task or otherwise busy. Understanding the processes determining which information is more likely to overcome this “inattentional deafness” is crucial for theories of consciousness and non-conscious cognition. This is especially important because much less is known about processes that precede and determine conscious awareness in the auditory modality, compared to the visual modality. We developed a task that leaves the auditory channels free of within-channel interference to examine which kind of speech stimuli enter consciousness more often. Specifically, we tested whether word valence affects the prioritization of utterances to awareness. In three experiments (two preregistered), 101 participants completed a visual task while a stream of pseudowords was played. Occasionally, a meaningful word appeared in the stream and, shortly after, participants were asked about its presence. The results show counter-intuitively that participants consciously heard more neutral words than negative ones, regardless of visual task difficulty. The intelligibility of pronunciation, alongside phonetic and lexical features, could not account for this effect. The results suggest that the emotional content influences how information is prioritized non-consciously.