Recently, a new trial-wise assessment method of subjective awareness has been introduced into the field of masked priming, namely the Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS, Ramsoy & Overgaard, ; Lähteenmäki et al., 2015). The scale reignited the old debate about whether non-conscious processing is possible at all. While some studies claimed that non-conscious processing would be a methodological artifact of inadequate awareness assessment (Lähteenmäki et al., 2015), we provide evidence that the perceptual awareness scale itself is problematic, because it interferes with the processes underlying masked priming. Specifically, we examined masked semantic and affective priming effects, using either traditional objective forced-choice prime recognition and retrospective summary reports of subjective awareness, or trial-by-trial ratings of subjective awareness using the PAS. Using the same prime duration and masking conditions (i.e., 20 ms, 40 ms, 60 ms), the PAS-absent groups yielded reliable masked priming effects. In the PAS-present groups, residual priming effects, based on response-related processes, were observed when prime awareness was present. We conclude that trial-by-trial subjective awareness ratings can abolish masked priming effects due to the altered processing strategies.