We See More Than We Can Report

Abstract

The distinction between access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness is a subject of intensive debate. According to one view, visual experience overflows the capacity of the attentional and working memory system: We see more than we can report. According to the opposed view, this perceived richness is an illusion-we are aware only of information that we can subsequently report. This debate remains unresolved because of the inevitable reliance on report, which is limited in capacity. To bypass this limitation, this study utilized color diversity-a unique summary statistic-which is sensitive to detailed visual information. Participants were shown a Sperling-like array of colored letters, one row of which was precued. After reporting a letter from the cued row, participants estimated the color diversity of the noncued rows. Results showed that people could estimate the color diversity of the noncued array without a cost to letter report, which suggests that color diversity is registered automatically, outside focal attention, and without consuming additional working memory resources.

What is the Bandwidth of Perceptual Experience?

“…In fact, a recent study claimed that one particular statistic, color diversity, could be perceived ‘cost free’ and required no attention or working-memory resources [8]. Are ensemble statistics and scene representations truly ‘cost free’?…”

Ensemble coding remains accurate under object and spatial visual working memory load

“…Also, Huang (2015) observed a similar cost of dividing attention between individual objects and perceptual groups, suggesting that statistical properties require as much attention as individual features. At the same time, several studies suggest that a minimal amount of attention spread over the scene is sufficient to process statistical information (Alvarez & Oliva, 2008;Chong & Treisman, 2005a;Joo, Shin, Chong, & Blake, 2009), even when it is not sufficient for conscious awareness of individual features within the set (Ward, Bear, & Scholl, 2016; but see Bronfman, Brezis, Jacobson, & Usher, 2014). This is further supported by clinical studies showing that even patients with unilateral spatial neglect can use information from their neglected visual field when computing statistical information (Pavlovskaya, Soroker, Bonneh, & Hochstein, 2015;Yamanashi Leib, Landau, Baek, Chong, & Robertson, 2012).…”

Rich conscious perception outside focal attention

“…One dramatic advance is reported in Bronfman et al [6] that takes advantage of a well-known phenomenon. In a task that demands focal attention, subjects show little or no decrement in performance from a secondary task in which they report 'ensemble properties' or 'gists' concerning items that are not focally attended.…”