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Integration without awareness: expanding the limits of unconscious processing

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Citation

Mudrik, L., Breska, A., Lamy, D., & Deouell, L. (2011). Integration without awareness: expanding the limits of unconscious processing. Psychological Science, 22(6), 764-770. doi:10.1177/0956797611408736.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000A-0C54-B
Abstract
Human conscious awareness is commonly seen as the climax of evolution. However, what function-if any-it serves in human behavior is still debated. One of the leading suggestions is that the cardinal function of conscious awareness is to integrate numerous inputs-including the multitude of features and objects in a complex scene-across different levels of analysis into a unified, coherent, and meaningful perceptual experience. Here we demonstrate, however, that integration of objects with their background scenes can be achieved without awareness of either. We used a binocular rivalry technique known as continuous flash suppression to induce perceptual suppression in a group of human observers. Complex scenes that included incongruent objects escaped perceptual suppression faster than normal scenes did. We conclude that visual awareness is not needed for object-background integration or for processing the likelihood of an object to appear within a given semantic context, but may be needed for dealing with novel situations.