title: The case for characterising type-2 blindsight as a genuinely visual phenomenon.
abstract: Type-2 blindsight is often characterised as involving a non-visual form of awareness that blindsight subjects experience under certain presentation conditions. This paper evaluates the claim that type-2 awareness is non-visual and the proposal that it is a cognitive form of awareness. It is argued that, contrary to the standard account, type-2 awareness is best characterised as visual both because it satisfies certain criteria for being visual and because it can accommodate facts about the phenomenon that the cognitive account cannot. The conclusion is made that type-2 blindsight is best characterised as involving a form of abnormal, degraded visual awareness.
authors.affiliation: The Rotman Institute, Western University, Stevenson Hall 2150G, London, Ontario N6A 5B8, Canada. Electronic address: rfoley5@uwo.ca.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Foley
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D060733:Electromagnetic Radiation; D006801:Humans; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Awareness; Blindsight; Perception; The senses; Type-2 blindsight; Vision