Self-relevance prioritizes access to visual awareness.

Abstract

As we are cognizant of only a fraction of the available visual inputs at any given time, how is information selected for access to consciousness? In particular, does the personal significance of stimuli influence perceptual selection? Given that self-relevant information is prioritized during various stages of processing, here we hypothesized that self-association may privilege access to awareness under continuous flash suppression (CFS). The results supported this prediction. Compared with geometric shapes referenced to either a friend or stranger, those previously associated with self were prioritized in visual awareness. To establish the basis of this effect, the processes underlying task performance were investigated using a hierarchical drift diffusion model approach. These analyses showed that self-prioritization mapped onto both the decisional (i.e., starting value, ) and nondecisional (i.e.,₀) parameters of the diffusion model. The implications of these findings are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record

Self-Reference Emerges Earlier than Emotion during an Implicit Self-Referential Emotion Processing Task: Event-Related Potential Evidence

“…Our finding of early self-discrimination is consistent with studies of Chinese subjects (Sui et al, 2009 , 2012c ; Chen et al, 2011 , 2015 ; Fan et al, 2011 , 2013 ; Yang et al, 2012 ; Zhang et al, 2013 ; Guan et al, 2014 ; Liu et al, 2016 ) and Western populations (Herbert et al, 2011a ; Sui et al, 2012c ; Tacikowski et al, 2014 ). Research suggests that automatic processing bias towards self might not reflect stimuli familiarity but could be related to perceptual salient processing with social self-relevance, termed the self-prioritization effect (Macrae et al, 2004 , 2017 ; Sui et al, 2012a , b , 2015 ; Humphreys and Sui, 2015 ; Schäfer et al, 2015 , 2016 ). The self could be a center to integrate different information types at various processing stages (Sui and Humphrey, 2015 ), and the self-modulation effect could happen automatically or intentionally (Humphreys and Sui, 2015 ).…”

“…However, one of the most important roles of self is to discriminate one’s own from non-self or other-related stimuli. The widely reported self-prioritization effect in perception and memory suggests a social discrimination function of self (Macrae et al, 2004 , 2017 ; Sui et al, 2012a , b , 2015 ; Schäfer et al, 2015 , 2016 ). The components of N1 (50–150 ms), P2 (about 150–250 ms), and P300 (about 300–500 ms) have shown the advantage effect for self-relevant stimuli (Zhao et al, 2009 , 2011 ; Fan et al, 2011 ; Yang et al, 2012 ; Chen et al, 2015 ; Liu et al, 2016 ).…”

Shortcuts for fear in hierarchical visual systems

“…Our findings differ from previous research that has frequently found that prior expectations bias the starting point of evidence accumulation, rather than nondecision time (Mulder et al, 2012;Dunovan et al, 2014;Wiech et al, 2014;White et al, 2016;Barbosa et al, 2017;White et al, 2018). There is evidence, however, that temporal expectations hasten non-decision time (Jepma et al, 2012), as do stimuli that are self-relevant (Macrae et al, 2017). Like the temporal expectation study (Jepma et al, 2012), we fixed the relative starting point to 0.5 because we were comparing correct and incorrect behavioural responses (Voss et al, 2015).…”

Mine or mother’s? Exploring the self-ownership effect across cultures

“…To explore the processes underpinning task performance, computational modeling (i.e., drift diffusion model (DDM) analysis) will be used to explicate the specific pathway (or pathways) through which ownership influences decisionmaking (e.g., Golubickis et al 2017Golubickis et al , 2018Macrae et al 2017). In any task context, there are two distinct ways in which decisional processing can be biased.…”