The effect of spatial attention on invisible stimuli

Shin, Kilho; Stolte, Moritz; Chong, Sang Chul

doi:10.3758/app.71.7.1507

Cited by 51 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…There is only limited evidence, however, for specific facial features being processed unconsciously (Adams et al, 2010; Xu et al, 2011). Most studies indicate that the representation of facial shape, gender, identity, expression, and eye gaze requires awareness (Moradi et al, 2005; Shin et al, 2009; Yang et al, 2010; Amihai et al, 2011; Stein and Sterzer, 2011; Stein et al, 2012a). Amihai et al (2011) found that faces rendered invisible through CFS failed to induce race adaptation aftereffects, indicating that there is no unconscious processing of facial properties that discriminate faces from different races.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Own-race and own-age biases facilitate visual awareness of faces under interocular suppression

Stein

End

Sterzer

2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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The detection of a face in a visual scene is the first stage in the face processing hierarchy. Although all subsequent, more elaborate face processing depends on the initial detection of a face, surprisingly little is known about the perceptual mechanisms underlying face detection. Recent evidence suggests that relatively hard-wired face detection mechanisms are broadly tuned to all face-like visual patterns as long as they respect the typical spatial configuration of the eyes above the mouth. Here, we qualify this notion by showing that face detection mechanisms are also sensitive to face shape and facial surface reflectance properties. We used continuous flash suppression (CFS) to render faces invisible at the beginning of a trial and measured the time upright and inverted faces needed to break into awareness. Young Caucasian adult observers were presented with faces from their own race or from another race (race experiment) and with faces from their own age group or from another age group (age experiment). Faces matching the observers’ own race and age group were detected more quickly. Moreover, the advantage of upright over inverted faces in overcoming CFS, i.e., the face inversion effect (FIE), was larger for own-race and own-age faces. These results demonstrate that differences in face shape and surface reflectance influence access to awareness and configural face processing at the initial detection stage. Although we did not collect data from observers of another race or age group, these findings are a first indication that face detection mechanisms are shaped by visual experience with faces from one’s own social group. Such experience-based fine-tuning of face detection mechanisms may equip in-group faces with a competitive advantage for access to conscious awareness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Own-race and own-age biases facilitate visual awareness of faces under interocular suppression

Stein

End

Sterzer

2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…Under interocular suppression, by contrast, unconscious processing seems to be comparably limited (Tong et al, 2006; Almeida et al, 2008; Lin and He, 2009). For example, a number of studies have failed to obtain evidence for unconscious processing of facial features rendered invisible through CFS (Moradi et al, 2005; Shin et al, 2009; Yang et al, 2010; Amihai et al, 2011; Stein and Sterzer, 2011; Stein et al, 2012a; but see Adams et al, 2010; Xu et al, 2011; Barbot and Kouider, 2012). This indicates that backward masking represents a more sensitive technique for measuring unconscious high-level processing than interocular suppression.…”

Section: Classic Dissociation Approaches To Unconscious Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unconscious processing under interocular suppression: getting the right measure

Stein

Sterzer

2014

Front. Psychol.

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“…There is also evidence of category-specific processing of suppressed faces in the FFA, using more sensitive analysis methods based on multivariate pattern classification (Sterzer et al, 2008). In addition, adaptation to suppressed face stimuli appears to strongly depend on spatial attention (Shin, Stolte, & Chong, 2009;Yang, Hong, & Blake, 2010).…”

Section: Increased Invisible Stimulation Reverses Priming Influencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longer is not better: nonconscious overstimulation reverses priming influences under interocular suppression

Barbot

Kouider

2011

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Previous research has shown that stimuli rendered invisible through masking can be sufficiently processed to induce nonconscious influences and facilitate subsequent recognition. However, masking paradigms are methodologically restricted such that stimuli cannot be presented for longer than a few tens of milliseconds, potentially restricting the strength of nonconscious influences. By adapting a masked face repetition priming paradigm to a recent interocular suppression method, we investigated whether longer periods of invisible prime stimulation lead to larger nonconscious influences on subsequent recognition. Surprisingly, we found that while brief periods of invisible prime stimulation result in classical facilitation priming, long periods of invisible stimulation lead to negative priming influences, reflecting impairment of subsequent recognition. In contrast, when the prime was visible, longer exposure resulted in classical facilitation effects, revealing qualitative differences between conscious and nonconscious processes. Altogether, the present findings reveal the existence of a nonconscious overstimulation cost, as well as an important dissociation between conscious and nonconscious processing.

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The effect of spatial attention on invisible stimuli

Cited by 51 publications

References 32 publications

Own-race and own-age biases facilitate visual awareness of faces under interocular suppression

Own-race and own-age biases facilitate visual awareness of faces under interocular suppression

Unconscious processing under interocular suppression: getting the right measure

Longer is not better: nonconscious overstimulation reverses priming influences under interocular suppression

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