TY - JOUR
T1 - We See More Than We Can Report
T2 - "Cost Free" Color Phenomenality Outside Focal Attention
AU - Bronfman, Zohar Z.
AU - Brezis, Noam
AU - Jacobson, Hilla
AU - Usher, Marius
PY - 2014/7
Y1 - 2014/7
N2 - The distinction between access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness is a subject of intensive debate. According to one view, visual experience overflows the capacity of the attentional and working memory system: We see more than we can report. According to the opposed view, this perceived richness is an illusion-we are aware only of information that we can subsequently report. This debate remains unresolved because of the inevitable reliance on report, which is limited in capacity. To bypass this limitation, this study utilized color diversity-a unique summary statistic-which is sensitive to detailed visual information. Participants were shown a Sperling-like array of colored letters, one row of which was precued. After reporting a letter from the cued row, participants estimated the color diversity of the noncued rows. Results showed that people could estimate the color diversity of the noncued array without a cost to letter report, which suggests that color diversity is registered automatically, outside focal attention, and without consuming additional working memory resources.
AB - The distinction between access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness is a subject of intensive debate. According to one view, visual experience overflows the capacity of the attentional and working memory system: We see more than we can report. According to the opposed view, this perceived richness is an illusion-we are aware only of information that we can subsequently report. This debate remains unresolved because of the inevitable reliance on report, which is limited in capacity. To bypass this limitation, this study utilized color diversity-a unique summary statistic-which is sensitive to detailed visual information. Participants were shown a Sperling-like array of colored letters, one row of which was precued. After reporting a letter from the cued row, participants estimated the color diversity of the noncued rows. Results showed that people could estimate the color diversity of the noncued array without a cost to letter report, which suggests that color diversity is registered automatically, outside focal attention, and without consuming additional working memory resources.
KW - Sperling paradigm
KW - attention
KW - iconic memory
KW - phenomenal vs. access consciousness
KW - summary statistics
KW - visual working memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904350590&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0956797614532656
DO - 10.1177/0956797614532656
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
C2 - 24815608
AN - SCOPUS:84904350590
SN - 0956-7976
VL - 25
SP - 1394
EP - 1403
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
IS - 7
ER -