Fearful faces have a sensory advantage in the competition for awareness.

Hedger, Nicholas; Adams, Wendy J.; Garner, Matthew

doi:10.1037/xhp0000127

Cited by 81 publications

(177 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…According to our results, facial expression recognition survives in the absence of awareness, even though its strength depends on the level of awareness: as the RLNA increases, the strength of facial expression recognition drops. This is in accordance with the previous literature on nonconscious facial expression recognition with CFS (Anderson et al, 2012;Lapate et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2007), even though some low-level features may impact this e↵ect (e.g., Gray et al, 2013;Hedger et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Sensitivity vs. Awareness Curve: A Novel Model-Based Analysis to Uncover the Processes Underlying Nonconscious Perception

Pournaghdali¹,

Schwartz²,

Hays³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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In this study, we present a novel model-based analysis of the association between awareness and perceptual processing based on a multidimensional version of signal detection theory (general recognition theory, or GRT). The analysis fits a GRT model to behavioral data and uses the estimated model to construct a sensitivity vs. awareness (SvA) curve, representing sensitivity in the discrimination task at each value of relative likelihood of awareness. This approach treats awareness as a continuum rather than a dichotomy, but also provides an objective benchmark for low likelihood of awareness. In two experiments, we assessed nonconscious facial expression recognition using SvA curves in a condition in which emotional faces (fearful vs. neutral) were rendered invisible using continuous flash suppression (CFS) for 500 and 700 milliseconds. We predicted and found sub-conscious processing of face emotion, in the form of higher than chance-level sensitivity in the area of low likelihood of awareness.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Sensitivity vs. Awareness Curve: A Novel Model-Based Analysis to Uncover the Processes Underlying Nonconscious Perception

Pournaghdali¹,

Schwartz²,

Hays³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Along another dimension, the available paradigms may be placed within a functional hierarchy of unconscious processing, according to the extent to which features of visual stimuli are processed on an unconscious level and still induce effects on behaviour, e.g., in priming experiments (Breitmeyer, 2015). The results of our reanalysis can be framed into an emerging series of results that indicate that unconscious processing associated with CFS is not as high-level as previously thought (Hedger, Adams, & Garner, 2015;Hesselmann, Darcy, Sterzer, & Knops, 2015;Hesselmann & Knops, 2014;Moors, Boelens, et al, 2016) and that neural activity related to stimuli suppressed by CFS is considerably reduced already in early visual areas (Fogelson, Kohler, Miller, Granger, & Tse, 2014;Yuval-Greenberg & Heeger, 2013). Importantly, building such a functional hierarchy should eventually allow to formulate predictions on the level of unconscious processing that can be expected in a specific experimental setup.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

A critical reexamination of doing arithmetic nonconsciously

Moors

Hesselmann

2017

Psychon Bull Rev

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A recent study claimed to have obtained evidence that participants can solve invisible multistep arithmetic equations (Sklar et al., 2012). The authors used a priming paradigm in which reaction times to targets congruent with the equation's solution were responded to faster compared with incongruent ones. We critically reanalyzed the data set of Sklar et al. and show that the claims being made in the article are not fully supported by the alternative analyses that we applied. A Bayesian reanalysis of the data accounting for the random variability of the target stimuli in addition to the subjects shows that the evidence for priming effects is less strong than initially claimed. That is, although Bayes factors revealed evidence for the presence of a priming effect, it was generally weak. Second, the claim that unconscious arithmetic occurs for subtraction but not for addition is not supported when the critical interaction is tested. Third, the data do not show well-established features of numerosity priming as derived from V-shaped response time curves for prime-target distances. Fourth, we show that it is impossible to classify reaction times as resulting from congruent or incongruent primetarget relationships, which should be expected if their results imply that participants genuinely solve the equations on each trial. We conclude that the claims being made in the original article are not fully supported by the analyses that we apply. Together with a recent failure to replicate the original results and a critique of the analysis based on regression to the mean, we argue that the current evidence for unconscious arithmetic is inconclusive. We argue that strong claims require strong evidence and stress that cumulative research strategies are needed to provide such evidence.

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“…In the control conditions, however, the lower levels of uncertainty could still be insufficient for the different response criteria between these conditions to modulate RTs. Future b-CFS studies could rule out the potential influence of such response biases by using non-speeded, signal detection-based bias-free protocols in which presentation times are fixed (e.g., Kaunitz et al, 2013; Lupyan and Ward, 2013; Hedger et al, 2015). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between-Subject Variability in the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression Paradigm: Potential Causes, Consequences, and Solutions

Gayet

Stein

2017

Front. Psychol.

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A recent focus in the field of consciousness research involves investigating the propensity of initially non-conscious visual information to gain access to consciousness. A critical tool for measuring conscious access is the so-called breaking continuous flash suppression paradigm (b-CFS). In this paradigm, a high contrast dynamic pattern is presented to one eye, thereby temporarily suppressing a target stimulus that is presented to the other eye. The time it takes for observers to report (e.g., the location of) the initially suppressed stimulus provides a measure of conscious access. Typical observations in b-CFS studies include the finding that upright faces are released from suppression faster than inverted faces, and the finding that stimuli that match the current content of visual working memory are released from suppression faster than mismatching stimuli. Interestingly, the extent to which observers exhibit these effects varies extensively (in the range of hundreds of milliseconds). By re-analyzing existing datasets and a new dataset we establish that the difference in RTs between conditions in b-CFS tasks (i.e., the effect of interest) is highly correlated with participants' overall suppression durations, and with their trial-to-trial variability in RTs. We advocate the usage of a simple latency- normalization method, which (1) removes the between-subject variability in suppression duration from the effect of interest, while (2) providing distributions of RT differences that are better suited for parametric testing. We next compare this latency-normalization method to two other transformations that are widely applied on within-subject RT data (z-transformations and log-transformations). Finally, we tentatively discuss how trial-to-trial variability and overall suppression duration might relate to prolonged phases of shallow suppression that are more prone to modulations of conscious access.

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Fearful faces have a sensory advantage in the competition for awareness.

Cited by 81 publications

References 62 publications

Sensitivity vs. Awareness Curve: A Novel Model-Based Analysis to Uncover the Processes Underlying Nonconscious Perception

Sensitivity vs. Awareness Curve: A Novel Model-Based Analysis to Uncover the Processes Underlying Nonconscious Perception

A critical reexamination of doing arithmetic nonconsciously

Between-Subject Variability in the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression Paradigm: Potential Causes, Consequences, and Solutions

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