Functional hierarchies of nonconscious visual processing
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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
Bruno G Breitmeyer1, Alpay Koç, Haluk Oğmen
1Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5022, USA. brunob@uh.edu <brunob@uh.edu>
Abstract:
A number of psychophysical techniques can be used to eliminate the registration of stimuli in visual awareness and to study the dynamics of conscious and nonconscious information processing in the visual system. However, little is known about how these techniques relate to each other. We chose to compare binocular rivalry, induced by orthogonal gratings presented separately to the two eyes, and metacontrast suppression, produced when a target stimulus is followed by a spatially surrounding mask stimulus, to investigate relative levels and correlates of nonconscious processing. Combined with prior results, our findings indicate that binocular rivalry expresses its suppressive effects prior to the level at which the mechanism of metacontrast does. Implications for theories of masking and interpretations of the loss or perceptual effects when stimulus visibility is suppressed by different psychophysical methods are discussed.
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