On the Fringe of Awareness: The Glance-Look Model of Attention-Emotion Interactions

In previous work, we have developed a “Glance-Look” model, which has replicated a broad profile of data on the semantic Attentional Blink (AB) task and characterized how attention deployment is modulated by emotion. The model relies on a distinction between two levels of meaning: implicational and propositional, which are supported by two corresponding mental subsystems. The somatic contribution of emotional effects is modeled by an additional body-state subsystem. The interaction among these three subsystems enables attention to oscillate between them. Using this model, we have predicted the pattern of conscious perception during the AB and the changes of awareness when emotional or other task irrelevant processing occurs. We provide a specific account of the interaction between attention, emotion and consciousness. In particular, the dynamics of two modes of attending to meaning (implicational being more distributed and propositional being evaluative and specific) give rise to fringe awareness.