Subliminal cues accompanied by action generate temporal expectancy and the role of supraliminal experience

Sensory events associated with motor actions are critical for perceptual calibration and motor control. Due to the stable temporal relationships between these events, individuals can anticipate the timing of one event based on another. While temporal expectancy is well-established for supraliminal stimuli (conscious cues) through temporal orienting, less is known about the role of subliminal cues generated by actions. Although subliminal stimuli are known to influence perception and behavior—specifically in forming spatial expectancies—their role in temporal expectancy remains unclear. Furthermore, evidence suggests that prior supraliminal experience may enhance the utilization of subliminal information. Integrating the conceptual link between space and time, the present study investigated whether individuals can form temporal expectancies based on action-generated subliminal stimuli and explored how supraliminal experience modulates this process. Our results indicate that participants do not form temporal expectancies through subliminal cues alone. Instead, the formation of such expectancy and transferred learning benefits upon target discrimination (i.e., orientation discrimination) depends on prior supraliminal experience with the association between the cue and the temporal onset of the subsequent target.