title: Does level of processing affect the transition from unconscious to conscious perception?
abstract: Recently, Windey, Gevers, and Cleeremans (2013) proposed a level of processing (LoP) hypothesis claiming that the transition from unconscious to conscious perception is influenced by the level of processing imposed by task requirements. Here, we carried out two experiments to test the LoP hypothesis. In both, participants were asked to classify briefly presented pairs of letters as same or different, based either on the letters' physical features (a low-level task), or on a semantic rule (a high-level task). Stimulus awareness was measured by means of the four-point Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS). The results showed that low or moderate stimulus visibility was reported more frequently in the low-level task than in the high-level task, suggesting that the transition from unconscious to conscious perception is more gradual in the former than in the latter. Therefore, although alternative interpretations remain possible, the results of the present study fully support the LoP hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Electronic address: anna.anzulewicz@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anzulewicz
authors.affiliation: Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Dariusz
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Asanowicz
authors.affiliation: Consciousness, Cognition and Computation Group, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Windey
authors.affiliation: Warsaw School of Social Science and Humanities, Faculty in Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Borysław
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Paulewicz
authors.affiliation: Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Michał
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wierzchoń
authors.affiliation: Consciousness, Cognition and Computation Group, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cleeremans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012660:Semantics; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Awareness; Consciousness; Dichotomous; Gradual; Levels of processing; Vision