Unconscious Vision
Unconscious Vision
Ulrich ANSORGE(Department of Psychological Basic Research, University of Vienna)
As humans we are not aware of all our psychic processes. But what exactly are the capabilities and limits of unaware or unconscious processing? One way to study these questions is by human vision. Humans are able to process visual stimuli even if they do not see these stimuli. This has been demonstrated in masked-priming experiments with human participants. In these experiments, visual masking prevents the participants’ awareness of a priming stimulus. Nonetheless, the priming stimulus affects the participants’ behavior. In my talk, I will first explain the masked-priming procedure and then review some of the major conclusions that have been drawn from masked-priming research about the types and the limits of unaware processing. The presentation concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of the method and the possible division of labor between conscious/aware and unconscious/unaware processing.
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