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Published on: May 23, 2019
Perceptual illusions in brief visual presentations
Vincent de Gardelle1, Jérôme Sackur, Sid Kouider
1Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, CNRS/EHESS/DEC-ENS, Paris, France. gardelle@ens.fr
Consciousness and Cognition
|April 17, 2009
Summary
Our perception of richness exceeds our ability to report it. This study reveals that the feeling of seeing is an illusion, reconstructed from partial information and expectations, not actual detailed visual experience.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Philosophy of Mind
Background:
- Subjective feeling of rich perceptual experience often exceeds reportable content.
- Debate exists between dual-consciousness models and illusionist accounts of phenomenal experience.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the nature of subjective richness in visual perception.
- Determine if phenomenal experience is truly richer than accessible information.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a modified partial-report paradigm with unexpected pseudo-letters.
- Assessed participants' subjective experience and reportable content.
Main Results:
- Participants reported seeing only letters, even with unexpected pseudo-letters present.
- Subjective feeling of seeing letters was an illusion, reconstructed from partial visual cues.
- Partial letter-like information combined with expectations contributes to the feeling of seeing.
Conclusions:
- The richness of phenomenal visual experience may be an illusion.
- The feeling of seeing emerges from an interplay between partial information and cognitive expectations.
- Challenges the notion of a direct, unmediated rich phenomenal consciousness.
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