Skip to main content

On the limits of evidence accumulation of the preconscious percept

Aviles, Alberto, Bowman, Howard, Wyble, Brad (2020) On the limits of evidence accumulation of the preconscious percept. Cognition, 195 . Article Number 104080. ISSN 0010-0277. E-ISSN 1873-7838. (doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104080) (KAR id:77074)

Abstract

When a stimulus is repeated the memory representation for that stimulus is strengthened and performance in memory tests increases. To what extent this effect requires that each exposure elicits a fully-fledged conscious percept? In two Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) experiments we explored whether the memory representations for words would accumulate evidence trough repeated exposure when none of those presentations induced a conscious percept. Participants were instructed to identify repeated items inserted in different RSVP streams and we isolated the first instance that an item was consciously perceived as repeating. The results showed that the probability of detecting a repetition for the first time was constant across repetitions. This effect signals a limit to the evidence accumulation process through repeated exposure. We discuss whether conscious perception modulates the decay of memory representations with below-threshold items resulting in extremely fleeting memory representations.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104080
Uncontrolled keywords: Conscious perception, episodic memory, repetition effect, RSVP evidence accumulation
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Depositing User: Howard Bowman
Date Deposited: 06 Oct 2019 17:56 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 19:13 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/77074 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.