Subconscious Cognition?!
What you don’t know, might help you
Perception and Cognition
• We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms
to provide information to our brains to
guide current or future behavior
Perception and Cognition
• We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms
to provide information to our brains to
guide current or future behavior
• Notice there’s no mention of consciousness
Perception and Cognition
• We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms
to provide information to our brains to
guide current or future behavior
• Notice there’s no mention of consciousness
• Lot’s of information gets processed and
used by your brain without you noticing
Perception and Cognition
• We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms
to provide information to our brains to
guide current or future behavior
• Notice there’s no mention of consciousness
• Lot’s of information gets processed and
used by your brain without you noticing
• Consider some examples
Masked Priming
Masked Priming
S PAM
TIME
Masked Priming
XXXXX
S PAM
TIME
Masked Priming
SP__
XXXXX
S PAM
TIME
Masked Priming
• Subject must complete the stem to make
any word other than the word that was
masked
Masked Priming
• Subject must complete the stem to make
any word other than the word that was
masked
• Subjects are more likely to use masked
word…indicates subconscious influence on
behavior
Blindsight and the Dorsal Stream
• Patients with lesions to primary visual
cortex occasionally retain some visual
abilities:
– better than chance performance on forcedchoice discrimination tasks
– spatial navigation and coordination (i.e. avoid
obstacles, interact with environment)
Blindsight and the Dorsal Stream
• Patients with lesions to primary visual
cortex occasionally retain some visual
abilities:
– better than chance performance on forcedchoice discrimination tasks
– spatial navigation and coordination (i.e. avoid
obstacles, interact with environment)
• Thought to be because of spared pathways that
send signals to the Dorsal Stream, A.K.A the
“Where and How Pathway”
Blindsight and the Dorsal Stream
• The Dorsal Stream is thought to mediate much
spatial processing and interaction with the
environment
“WHERE”
“WHAT”
Blindsight and the Dorsal Stream
• The Dorsal Stream is thought to mediate much
spatial processing and interaction with the
environment
• But the neural activity in these structures does not
(is not alone sufficient to) enter into consciousness
Blindsight and the Dorsal Stream
• The Dorsal Stream is thought to mediate much
spatial processing and interaction with the
environment
• But the neural activity in these structures does not
(is not alone sufficient to) enter into consciousness
• The locations of objects and your position relative
to them is channeled through the Dorsal Stream
without you knowing it (explicitly)
Perception and Cognition
• Clearly perception doesn’t not imply
awareness
Perception and Cognition
• Clearly perception doesn’t not imply
awareness
• MYSTERY: what is special about neural
activity that leads to awareness ?
Perception and Cognition
• Clearly perception doesn’t not imply
awareness
• MYSTERY: what is special about neural
activity that leads to awareness ?
NOBODY KNOWS !
Perception and Cognition
• Absence of awareness does not imply lack
of perception but…
Perception and Cognition
• Absence of awareness does not imply lack
of perception but…
• That doesn’t mean that all information
presented to you influences your thoughts
and actions
Next Time:
• Vokey & Read - Subliminal Messages:
Between the Devil and the Media