Perceptual integration without conscious access.
The visual system has the remarkable ability to integrate fragmentary visual input into a perceptually organized collection of surfaces and objects, a process we refer to as perceptual integration. Despite a long tradition of perception research, it is not known whether access to consciousness is required to complete perceptual integration. To investigate this question, we manipulated access to consciousness using the attentional blink. We show that, behaviorally, the attentional blink impairs conscious decisions about the presence of integrated surface structure from fragmented input. However, despite conscious access being impaired, the ability to decode the presence of integrated percepts remains intact, as shown through multivariate classification analyses of electroencephalogram (EEG) data. In contrast, when disrupting perception through masking, decisions about integrated percepts and decoding of integrated percepts are impaired in tandem, while leaving feedforward representations intact. Together, these data show that access consciousness and perceptual integration can be dissociated.
Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands; fahrenfort.work@gmail.com.
Johannes J
0000-0002-9025-3436
JJ
Fahrenfort
Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Jonathan
J
van Leeuwen
Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Christian N L
CN
Olivers
Helmholtz Institute, Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, 3584CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Hinze
0000-0002-8499-8394
H
Hogendoorn
D054518:Attentional Blink / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
access consciousness; attentional blink; masking; perceptual integration; phenomenal consciousness