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Unconscious influences on decision making in blindsight
Berit Brogaard1, Kristian Marlow1, Kevin Rice1
1Department of Philosophy and Center for Neurodynamics, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO 63121. brogaardb@gmail.com www.beritbrogaard.com me@kristianmarlow.com www.kristianmarlow.com kevin.rice0620@gmail.com.
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|January 28, 2014
Summary
Blindsight may not require conscious awareness for decision-making. Predictive behavior in blindsight suggests cognitive access to visual information, challenging the necessity of consciousness for judgment.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Philosophy of Mind
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Blindsight is a condition where individuals respond to visual stimuli without conscious visual experience.
- Existing theories debate whether unconscious brain processes or degraded visual experience explain blindsight.
- Newell & Shanks (N&S) propose blindsight reflects only degraded visual experience, not unconscious processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of visual consciousness in decision-making and judgment in blindsight.
- To challenge the view that blindsight is solely explained by degraded visual experience.
- To explore whether cognitive access to visual information in blindsight requires conscious awareness.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of existing research on blindsight.
- Examination of predictive behavior in blindsight under forced-choice conditions.
- Theoretical argumentation regarding the relationship between visual consciousness and cognitive processes.
Main Results:
- Evidence suggests blindsight predictive behavior involves cognitive access to low-level visual information.
- This cognitive access does not correlate with subjective visual consciousness.
- Degraded visual experience alone may not fully account for blindsight phenomena.
Conclusions:
- Visual consciousness may not be necessary for certain decision-making and judgment tasks.
- Cognitive access to visual information can occur independently of conscious visual experience.
- The findings suggest a dissociation between visual awareness and the capacity for judgment in blindsight.
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