unconscious and conscious perception

Question 1

What determines what we become conscious of?

Answer 1

Probabalistic detection of signals in noise

Competition of resources in the brain (paying attention to whats most useful to us)

Question 2

Name two types of perceptual blindess

Answer 2

• inattentional bias where we don’t notice changes in scenes due to expectations of how they should look
• motion induced blindness where we cannot see parts of it due to the movement

Question 3

What do we call it when we see something that isn’t actually there?

Answer 3

False alarm

Question 4

Discuss the threshold for seeing things

Answer 4

there is a threshold for seeing things- how likely we are to see something or to miss it, it is gradual with a zone of ambiguity

Question 5

Why is there a threshold for seeing things?

Answer 5

neurons have background activity and transmission is perfect

Question 6

What is the best explanation for perceptual awareness?

Answer 6

lots of neurons get together in a cohesive pattern with a feedback loop so a few firing doesn’t create coherence so we don’t register it. This is a psychometric function

Question 7

Why is blindsight an example of unconscious processing?

Answer 7

Because people claim to not see stuff and can then go on to answers questions about what they thought they were blind to

Question 8

How is subliminal priming an example of non conscious processing?

Answer 8

Influences what people think and therefore how they perceive an image

Question 9

explain how subliminal priming is done

Answer 9

• present a prime
• show a mask (more visually powerful than the prime)
• target
• priming effect