title: Visual sensing IS seeing: why "mindsight," in hindsight, is blind.
abstract: Faced with the surprising failure to notice large changes to visual scenes (change blindness), many researchers have sought evidence for alternative, nonattentional routes to change detection. A recent article in Psychological Science (Rensink, 2004) proposed a new, nonsensory "mindsight" mechanism to explain the finding that some subjects on some trials reported sensing the presence of a recurring change before they could explicitly identify it and without having a localizable visual experience of change. This mechanism would constitute a previously unknown mode of seeing that, as Rensink suggested, might be akin to a sixth sense. Its existence would have radical implications for the mechanisms underlying conscious visual experience. Provocative claims merit rigorous scrutiny. We rebut the existence of a mindsight mechanism by supporting a more mundane explanation: Some subjects take time to verify their initial conscious detection of changes.
authors: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA. dsimons@uiuc.edu
authors: Daniel J
authors: DJ
authors: Simons
authors: Gabriel
authors: G
authors: Nevarez
authors: Walter R
authors: WR
authors: Boot
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D014796:Visual Perception