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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Assessment and Communication for People with Disorders of Consciousness
Published on: August 1, 2017
Unconscious perception: the need for a paradigm shift
Daniel Holender1, Katia Duscherer
1Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 avenue F. D. Roosevelt, CP 191, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. holender@ulb.ac.be
Abstract:
According to Snodgrass, Bernat, and Shevrin (2004), unconscious perception can be demonstrated convincingly only at the objective detection threshold, provided that the conditions of their objective detection/strategic model are met, whereas both the subjective threshold model of Cheesman and Merikle (1984, 1986) and the objective threshold/rapid decay model of Greenwald, Draine, and Abrams (1996) are inconclusive. We argue on theoretical, metatheoretical, and empirical grounds that all three dual-process models, which are based on both conscious and unconscious perception, should be rejected in favor of the single-process conscious perception model.
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