Task 5- Consciousness Flashcards
What did participants have to do in Watanabe’s study?
Participants lie in fMRI scanner and look at a target and a suppressing annulus
What happens if both targets was projected in one eye and when each was projected into a different eye in Watanabe’s study? What about consciousness?
- If both projected in one eye, the target (a visible grating) was visible -> C
- when each was projected into a different eye, the target became invisible (continuous flash suppression) -> NO C
What was the target and the non-grating in Watanabe’s study?
-What did they have to do if there was a red and a blue letter?
- Target: grating
- non-grating: letter
- ->red: attend to grating
- ->blue: attend to letter
How was attention in Watanabe’s study manipulated?
Participants were asked to attend to grating or to a letter
What was measured by the fMRI in Watanabe’s study?
Tracked hemodynamic activity of neurons in V1: attending to visible or invisible grating or attend away from the visible or invisible grating
What were the results of Watanabe’s study?
-When did the BOLD signal change?
o Bold signal didn’t change due to visibility or invisibility of target
o BUT paying attention to target increased BOLD signal (no matter if visible or invisible target) -> you can attend to stuff without becoming aware of it
When was consciousness measured in Watanabe’s study?
at stimulus-onset
What was the result of the study by Maier et al (described in Watanabe’s study)?
- What was recorded?
- What led to different brain signals?
- Do V1 neurons directly contribute to C?
o Monkeys: recorded V1 neurons
o Perceptual awareness and selective attention lead to different brain signals
o Greater attentional BOLD activity than BOLD activity related to visibility
• Visual attention and consciousness are related to different neural mechanisms
• V1 neurons do not directly contribute to C
What is Lamme’s theory about?
- there’s conscious and unconscious inputs
- attentive selection process operates at an independent stage
- attention determines whether a (conscious) report about stimuli is possible
- -> we are ‘conscious’ of many inputs but, without attention, this conscious experience cannot be reported and is quickly erased and forgotten
What is the role of attention in Lamme’s theory?
- without attention conscious experience cannot be reported and is quickly erased and forgotten
- Attention -> gatekeeper
How does Lamme explain change blindness and inattentional blindness?
failures of conscious memory, not consciousness
What are the two types of sensory memory?
retinotopic, fleeting form (iconic memory) and a more durable non-retinotopic form (working memory)
What does attention determine in regard to awareness?
- determines whether we go from phenomenal to access awareness or from iconic to working memory
- attention independent of awareness or memory
What was the result of the study with blocks (Figure 1) that was explained in Lamme’s article?
o Experiment with blocks
o Perform better when line pointing to block that is gonna change (condition b)
o As long as cue shown before second stimulus shown, you remember it correctly (condition c)
In which way is attention a selection process according to the neuroscientific perspective (discussed in Lamme’s article)?
Attention is a selection process where some inputs are processed faster, better or deeper than others, so that they have a better chance of producing or influencing a behavioral response or of being memorized
