Illusions and experiments of consciousness

Question 1

Necker cube

Answer 1

Three-dimensional cube that can be perceive in two different angles but not simultaneously - shows that conscious perception is serial

Question 2

Ebbinghaus illusion

Answer 2

Perceptually different, physically identical circles

• perception suffers from illusions - participants reported wrong size (same or not?)
• action not influenced by illusions - participants accurately gripped according to stimuli presented

Question 3

Dorsal and ventral visual streams

Answer 3

Dorsal stream - focused on location of object and actions based on such

Ventral stream - focused on perception and recognition of objects

Question 4

Troxler fading illusion

Answer 4

When staring into one part of an image, the rest of the background will seemingly disappear

Question 5

Monkey and neuronal correlate of conscious experience

Answer 5

Primary visual cortex fired depending on objective perception.
Higher visual areas such as V4 and inferotemporal cortex fired more strongly when preferred image

Question 6

DF - match and post experiment

Answer 6

DF was unable to match the orientation of a card given, but could successfully slot it in through a gap, showing that actions are not always linked to conscious perception

Question 7

fMRI on subliminal priming

Answer 7

• ventral visual cortex could be activated unconsciously
• fusiform gyrus can be activated unconsciously, with shape recognition and reading mechanisms

Question 8

McGurk effect

Answer 8

Visual stimulus suggests “ga ga ga”, auditory stimulus suggests “ba ba ba”, conflict resolved by producing “da da da”