Neural Substrate of Unconscious Visuo-Spatial Perception

Neural circuits of hierarchical visuo-spatial sequence processing.

Sequence processing has been investigated in a number of studies using serial reaction time tasks or simple artificial grammar tasks. Little, however, is known about higher-order sequence processing entailing the hierarchical organization of events. Here, we manipulated the regularities within sequentially occurring, non-linguistic visual symbols by applying two types of prediction rules. In on...

Perception as Unconscious Interference*

Since antiquity, visual theorists have variously proposed that perception (usually vision) results from unconscious inference. This paper reviews historical and recent theories of unconscious inferences, in order to make explicit their commitments to inferential cognitive processes. In particular, it asks whether the comparison of perception with inference has been intended metaphorically or li...

Conscious and Unconscious Perception

Contrasting the properties of conscious and unconscious processes is crucial for understanding how consciousness occurs in the brain. In this chapter, we review the theoretical framework and empirical methods used to delineate and contrast conscious vs. unconscious perception. After outlining the main approaches to measure unconscious influences on brain and behavior, we describe some of the ps...

Perception as Unconscious Inference

Consider for a moment the spatial and chromatic dimensions of your visual experience. Suppose that as you gaze about the room you see a table, some books, and papers. Ignore for now the fact that you immediately recognize these objects to be a table with books and papers on it. Concentrate on how the table looks to you: its top spreads out in front of you, stopping at edges beyond which lies un...

Visuo-spatial Working Memory