Philosophy of Cognitive Science > Science of Consciousness > Consciousness and Psychology > Attention and Consciousness in Psychology

Attention and Consciousness in Psychology

Edited by Bradley Richards (Ryerson University)
About this topic
Summary

The two central questions explored by papers in this area are: is there attention in the absence of consciousness (unconscious attention) and is there conscious experience or awareness in the absence of attention (consciousness without attention)? The debates about the existence of unconscious attention are frequently focused on the phenomenon of blindsight, though there have also been various experiments involving normal subjects that are taken to lend support to the existence of unconscious attention. Roughly, the point of contention is whether there is anything that is both unconscious and attended, and the candidates are objects, features of objects, and locations. Change and inattentional blindness experiments are sometimes taken to show that unattended objects or features are not consciously experienced. It has also been argued on an experimental basis that some visual phenomenal experience is unaccessed, and that vision has a finer grain than attention. 
Key works Key works on unconscious attention include: Kentridge et al 2008 and Mole 2008.  Key works on consciousness without attention include: Mack & Rock 1998 who claim that there may be no explicit awareness without attention; Mole 2008 who claims that attention may not be necessary for consciousness, but only for certain kinds of thought necessary for report; Block 2007 and Block 2011, who argues that some visual phenomenal experience is unaccessed; and Block 2012, Richards 2013, Taylor 2013, and Block 2013 who debate whether vision has a finer grain than attention that results in cases in which crowded objects are seen in the periphery of the visual field despite being unattended.
Introductions Mole et al 2011 is an anthology that provides a good introduction to issues surrounding attention and consciousness.
Related categories
Siblings:See also:
Jobs in this area
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
2 Postdoctoral Fellowships in Philosophy
Jobs from PhilJobs

465 found
Order:
1 — 50 / 465
  1. added 2019-03-06
    The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality.Bernardo Kastrup - 2019 - Winchester, UK: Iff Books.
    The Idea of the World offers a grounded alternative to the frenzy of unrestrained abstractions and unexamined assumptions in philosophy and science today. This book examines what can be learned about the nature of reality based on conceptual parsimony, straightforward logic and empirical evidence from fields as diverse as physics and neuroscience. It compiles an overarching case for idealism - the notion that reality is essentially mental - from ten original articles the author has previously published in leading academic journals. (...)
  2. added 2019-02-23
    Review of Radicalizing Enactivism by Hutto and Myin (2012) (Review Revised 2019).Michael Starks - 2019 - In Talking Monkeys-- Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Religion and Politics on a Doomed Planet -- Articles and Reviews 2006-2019 Michael Starks 3rd Edition. Las Vegas, NV USA: Reality Press. pp. 230-253.
    Probably the leading exponent of Wittgenstein’s ideas on the language games of inner and outer (the ‘Two Selves’ operation of our personality or intentionality or EP etc.) the prolific Daniel Hutto’s approach is called ‘Radical Enactivism’ and is well explained in numerous recent books and papers. It is a development of or version of the Embodied Mind ideas now current and, cleansed of its jargon, it is a straightforward extension of Wittgenstein’s 2nd and 3rd period writings (though Hutto seems only (...)
  3. added 2019-02-23
    Review of Meaning and the Growth of Understanding Wittgenstein's Significance for Developmental Psychology -- Chapman and Dixon Eds. (1987)(Review Revised 2019).Michael Starks - 2019 - In The Logical Structure of Human Behavior. Las Vegas, NV USA: Reality Press. pp. 209-224.
    Although now over 25 years old, many of the essays are quite contemporary. As expected, none of the authors grasp the full relevance of W for the description of behavior, missing most of the points made in my comments above, his many examples of how S1 becomes S2, his role as a pioneer in EP, and his attempts to separate nature from nurture. Brose has many good points and is aware of the foundational nature of On Certainty, but is too (...)
  4. added 2018-09-10
    The Phenomenology of REM-Sleep Dreaming: The Contributions of Personal and Perspectival Ownership, Subjective Temporality and Episodic Memory.Stan Klein - 2019 - Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 6:55-66.
    Although the dream narrative, of (bio)logical necessity, originates with the dreamer, s/he typically does not know this. For the dreamer, the dream world is the real world. In this article I argue that this nightly misattribution is best explained in terms of the concept of mental ownership (e.g., Albahari, 2006; Klein, 2015a; Lane, 2012). Specifically, the exogenous nature of the dream narrative is the result of an individual assuming perspectival, but not personal, ownership of content s/he authored (i.e., “The content (...)
  5. added 2018-09-07
    Introduction: Toward a Theory of Attention That Includes Effortless Attention.Brian Bruya - 2010 - In Effortless Attention: A New Perspective in the Cognitive Science of Attention and Action. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.
    In this Introduction, I identify seven discrete aspects of attention brought to the fore by by considering the phenomenon of effortless attention: effort, decision-making, action syntax, agency, automaticity, expertise, and mental training. For each, I provide an overview of recent research, identify challenges to or gaps in current attention theory with respect to it, consider how attention theory can be advanced by including current research, and explain how relevant chapters of this volume offer such advances.
  6. added 2018-09-06
    Do Our Automated Unconscious Behaviors Reveal Our Real Selves and Hidden Truths About the Universe? -- A Review of David Hawkins ‘Power Vs Force-the Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior –Author’s Official Authoritative Edition’ 412p(2012)(Original Edition 1995).Michael Starks - 2017 - Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization -- Articles and Reviews 2006-2017 3rd Ed 686p(2017).
    I am very used to strange books and special people but Hawkins stands out due to his use of a simple technique for testing muscle tension as a key to the “truth” of any kind of statement whatsoever—i.e., not just to whether the person being tested believes it, but whether it is really true! What is well known is that people will show automatic, unconscious physiological and psychological responses to just about anything they are exposed to—images, sounds, touch, odors, ideas, (...)
  7. added 2018-02-17
    Multi-Attention and the Horcrux Logic: Justifications for Talking on the Cell Phone While Driving.Galit Wellner - 2014 - Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 18 (1/2):48-73.
    Attention has been addressed either as a distinction of a figure from background or as a searchlight scanning of a surface. In both ways, attention is limited to a single object. The aim of this article is to suggest a platform for an interpretation of multi-attention, that is, attention based on multiplicity of objects and spaces. The article describes how attention can be given to more than one object, based on the experiences of pilots, parents and car drivers.
  8. added 2018-02-11
    Are the States Underlying Implicit Biases Unconscious? – A Neo-Freudian Answer.Beate Krickel - 2018 - Philosophical Psychology:1-20.
    Many philosophers as well as psychologists hold that implicit biases are due to unconscious attitudes. The justification for this unconscious-claim seems to be an inference to the best explanation of the mismatch between explicit and implicit attitudes, which is characteristic for implicit biases. The unconscious-claim has recently come under attack based on its inconsistency with empirical data. Instead, Gawronski et al. (2006) analyze implicit biases based on the so-called Associative-Propositional Evaluation (APE) model, according to which implicit attitudes are phenomenally conscious (...)
  9. added 2018-01-22
    Getting It Together: Psychological Unity and Deflationary Accounts of Animal Metacognition.Gary Comstock & William A. Bauer - 2018 - Acta Analytica 33 (4):431-451.
    Experimenters claim some nonhuman mammals have metacognition. If correct, the results indicate some animal minds are more complex than ordinarily presumed. However, some philosophers argue for a deflationary reading of metacognition experiments, suggesting that the results can be explained in first-order terms. We agree with the deflationary interpretation of the data but we argue that the metacognition research forces the need to recognize a heretofore underappreciated feature in the theory of animal minds, which we call Unity. The disparate mental states (...)
  10. added 2017-09-30
    A View of Consciousness From the Fringe.Max Velmans - 1993 - Consciousness and Cognition 2 (2):137-141.
    This paper evaluates Mangan’s (1993) analysis of the way feelings at the fringes of consciousness provide global evaluations of what is happening at the focus of attention in ways that allow the human mind to direct its activities in an effective, adaptive way—elaborating on a distinction between fringe consciousness and focal-attentive consciousness originally developed by William James. The paper argues that, while Mangan’s analysis is a plausible account of mental operations, viewed from a first-person perspective, it is inconsistent with a (...)
  11. added 2017-09-14
    An Introduction to the Science of Consciousness.Max Velmans - 1996 - In The Science of Consciousness: Psychological, Neuropsychological and Clinical Reviews. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 1-22.
    Abstract. This introductory chapter was written in 1996, for a new book of review articles on the emerging science of consciousness, specifically aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students by experts in the relevant fields. Following on a brief history, the chapter moves on to definitions of consciousness and background philosophical issues, and then introduces a unified, non-reductionist scientific approach. It then summarises major issues for studies of consciousness in cognitive psychology, including studies of attention, memory, the extent of preconscious analysis (...)
  12. added 2017-09-07
    Intrusive Uncertainty in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.Tom Cochrane & Keeley Heaton - 2017 - Mind and Language 32 (2):182-208.
    In this article we examine obsessive compulsive disorder. We examine and reject two existing models of this disorder: the Dysfunctional Belief Model and the Inference-Based Approach. Instead, we propose that the main distinctive characteristic of OCD is a hyperactive sub-personal signal of being in error, experienced by the individual as uncertainty about his or her intentional actions. This signalling interacts with the anxiety sensitivities of the individual to trigger conscious checking processes, including speculations about possible harms. We examine the implications (...)
  13. added 2017-09-06
    Measuring Away an Attentional Confound?Jorge Morales, Yasha Mouradi, Claire Sergent, Ned Block, Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel, David Rosenthal, Piercesare Grimaldi & Hakwan Lau - 2017 - Neuroscience of Consciousness 3 (1):1-3.
    A recent fMRI study by Webb et al. (Cortical networks involved in visual awareness independent of visual attention, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016;113:13923–28) proposes a new method for finding the neural correlates of awareness by matching atten- tion across awareness conditions. The experimental design, however, seems at odds with known features of attention. We highlight logical and methodological points that are critical when trying to disentangle attention and awareness.
  14. added 2017-08-28
    Effortless Attention: A New Perspective in the Cognitive Science of Attention and Action.Brian Bruya (ed.) - 2010 - MIT Press.
    This is the first book to explore the cognitive science of effortless attention and action. Attention and action are generally understood to require effort, and the expectation is that under normal circumstances effort increases to meet rising demand. Sometimes, however, attention and action seem to flow effortlessly despite high demand. Effortless attention and action have been documented across a range of normal activities--from rock climbing to chess playing--and yet fundamental questions about the cognitive science of effortlessness have gone largely unasked. (...)
  15. added 2017-03-27
    The Philosophy of Mind Wandering.Irving Zachary & Thompson Evan - forthcoming - In Fox Kieran & Christoff Kalina (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought and Creativity. Oxford University Press.
    Our paper serves as an introduction to a budding field: the philosophy of mind-wandering. We begin with a philosophical critique of the standard psychological definitions of mind-wandering as task-unrelated or stimulus-independent. Although these definitions have helped bring mind-wandering research onto centre stage in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, they have substantial limitations that researchers must overcome to move forward. Specifically, the standard definitions do not account for (i) the dynamics of mind wandering, (ii) task-unrelated thought that does not qualify as mind-wandering, (...)
  16. added 2017-02-16
    Les Theories de L'Attention.N. Vaschide - 1910 - Philosophical Review 19:105.
  17. added 2017-02-16
    Les Theories de L'Attention.R. Meunier - 1910 - Philosophical Review 19:105.
  18. added 2017-02-15
    Speed of Covert Orienting.Mi Posner, A. Cohen & R. Rafal - 1986 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 24 (5):326-326.
  19. added 2017-02-15
    Selective Attention to Negative Information in Depression-Schemata or Criteria.D. Lowe & J. Greenbaum - 1986 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 24 (5):325-325.
  20. added 2017-02-13
    A s Discussed Throughout This Volume, Treisman and Her Colleagues Have Proposed That Focused Attention.Weiwei Zhang, Jeffrey S. Johnson, GeoffreyF Woodman & Steven J. Luck - 2012 - In Jeremy M. Wolfe & Lynn C. Robertson (eds.), From Perception to Consciousness: Searching with Anne Treisman. Oxford University Press.
  21. added 2017-02-13
    Attentional Resources in Visual Tracking Through Occlusion: The High-Beams Effect.Jonathan I. Flombaum, Brian J. Scholl & Zenon W. Pylyshyn - 2008 - Cognition 107 (3):904-931.
  22. added 2017-02-13
    Attention, Models Of.Rajesh Pn Rao - 2003 - In L. Nadel (ed.), Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. Nature Publishing Group.
  23. added 2017-02-13
    The Structure of Human Attention: Evidence for Separate Spatial and Verbal Resource Pools.Walter S. Pritchard & Rick Hendrickson - 1985 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 23 (3):177-180.
  24. added 2017-02-13
    Traces of Fatigue in an Attention Dual Task: II.E. Soetens, M. Deboeck & J. Hueting - 1984 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 22 (6):514-516.
  25. added 2017-02-13
    Traces of Fatigue in an Attention Dual Task.Karel Vervaeck, Michel Deboeck, Johan Hueting & Eric Soetens - 1982 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 19 (3):151-154.
  26. added 2017-02-13
    The Concept of Identity and Children's Selective Attention.Eliane Vurpillot & William A. Ball - 1979 - In G. Hale & M. Lewis (eds.), Attention and Cognitive Development. Plenum.. pp. 23--42.
  27. added 2017-02-12
    Cartographies of Capture.Kieran Aarons - forthcoming - Theory and Event 16 (2).
  28. added 2017-02-11
    Supplementary Report: Complexity and Orienting Responses with Longer Exposures.D. E. Berlyne - 1958 - Journal of Experimental Psychology 56 (2):183.
  29. added 2017-02-11
    A Dual Selective Amplifier.H. B. Carlson & A. J. Ebel - 1944 - Journal of Experimental Psychology 34 (3):253.
  30. added 2017-02-10
    Selective Attention.Manuel Liz - 2008 - Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 34:15-20.
    The aim of this paper is to focus on the phenomenon of selective attention as pointing out important psychological cases where it is arguable that we can have practical reasons without the capacity to carry out any relevant inference. Selective attention also would serve to show the possibility to have very basic demonstrative references to particular perceptual items without the possession of any concept. I will argue that if we assume 1) that believing can be taken as a kind of (...)
  31. added 2017-02-09
    Reciprocal Effects of Attention and Perception: Comments on Anne Treisman's "How the Deployment of Attention Determines What We See".Shaul Hochstein - 2012 - In Jeremy M. Wolfe & Lynn C. Robertson (eds.), From Perception to Consciousness: Searching with Anne Treisman. Oxford University Press. pp. 278.
  32. added 2017-01-28
    The Conundrum of Unconventional Consciousness: Comments on LaBerge's Theory of Attention and Awareness.Alan Rudell - 1999 - PSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research On Consciousness 5.
    COMMENTARY ON: LaBerge, D. "Attention, Awareness, and the Triangular Circuit". Consciousness and Cognition, 6, 149-181.
  33. added 2017-01-28
    The Capture of Agga by Gilgameš.Jacob Klein - 1983 - Journal of the American Oriental Society 103 (1):201-204.
  34. added 2017-01-27
    Shifting Attention Across the Field Before Making a Directed Reach.U. Neisser & M. J. Wraga - 1992 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 30 (6):481-481.
  35. added 2017-01-27
    Visuospatial Sustained Attention.P. Bisiacchi & M. Proverbio - 1991 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 29 (6):511-511.
  36. added 2017-01-27
    The Covert Orienting of Attention to Stereoscopic Targets.L. Zimba & D. J. Tellinghuisen - 1990 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 28 (6):516-516.
  37. added 2017-01-27
    Aging and Effects of Central Processing Load on Spatial Attention.J. Kieley, A. Hartley & Jk Reynolds - 1989 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 27 (6):502-502.
  38. added 2017-01-27
    Covert Shifts of Attention Enhance Vigilance.T. Bahri & R. Parasuraman - 1989 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 27 (6):490-490.
  39. added 2017-01-27
    Evidence Against a Moving Spotlight Theory of Visual-Attention.M. Cheal & D. R. Lyon - 1988 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 26 (6):509-509.
  40. added 2017-01-27
    The Role of Attention in Visual Learning.G. Wolford & Hy Kim - 1987 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 25 (5):346-346.
  41. added 2017-01-26
    Représentationnalisme Et Attention.Émile Thalabard - 2013 - Dialogue 52 (3):551-586.
    Dans cet article, je défends le représentationnalisme contre l’objection de la saillance phénoménale, développée notamment par Chalmers, Nickel et Speaks. Selon mon approche, les déplacements couverts de l’attention améliorent la résolution des représentations perceptives au point de fixation. Cette amélioration locale permet d’expliquer l’effet de saillance, typique de l’attention focale, et de préserver l’intuition représentationnaliste. This article is a defence of representationalism against the objection of phenomenal saliency, which Chalmers, Nickel and Speaks have developed. According to my approach, covert shifts (...)
  42. added 2017-01-26
    Selective Attention as an Optimal Computational Strategy.G. Billock, C. Koch & D. Psaltis - 2005 - In Laurent Itti, Geraint Rees & John K. Tsotsos (eds.), Neurobiology of Attention. Academic Press. pp. 18--23.
  43. added 2017-01-26
    Psychological Issues in Selective Attention.Anne Treisman - 2004 - In Michael S. Gazzaniga (ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences Iii. MIT Press. pp. 529--544.
  44. added 2017-01-26
    The Effects of Scopolamine on Covert Orientation of Attention.S. M. Cockle & A. T. Smith - 1996 - In Enrique Villanueva (ed.), Perception. Ridgeview. pp. 140-140.
  45. added 2017-01-26
    12 Using Repetition Detection to Define and Localize the Processes of Selective Attention.George Sperling, Stephen A. Wurst & Zhong-Lin Lu - 1993 - In David E. Meyer & Sylvan Kornblum (eds.), Attention and Performance Xiv. MIT Press. pp. 14--265.
  46. added 2017-01-26
    The Effects of Practice on Mechanisms of Attention.Steven P. Tipper, Thomas Eissenberg & Bruce Weaver - 1992 - Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 30 (1):77-80.
  47. added 2017-01-26
    9 A Psychological View of the Neurobiology of Attention.William Hirst - 1986 - In David A. Oakley (ed.), Mind and Brain. Methuen. pp. 180.
  48. added 2017-01-26
    Attention and the Modulation of Stimulus Control.Werner K. Honig - 1970 - In D. Mostofsky (ed.), Attention: Contemporary Theory and Analysis. Appleton-Century-Crofts. pp. 193--238.
  49. added 2017-01-26
    Attention and Probability Learning.N. J. Mackintosh - 1970 - In D. Mostofsky (ed.), Attention: Contemporary Theory and Analysis. Appleton-Century-Crofts. pp. 173--191.
  50. added 2017-01-25
    Seeing the World Through Another Person’s Eyes: Simulating Selective Attention Via Action Observation.Alexandra Frischen, Daniel Loach & Steven P. Tipper - 2009 - Cognition 111 (2):212-218.
1 — 50 / 465
BibTeX / EndNote / RIS / etc
Export this page:
Restrictions



Viewing options


Open Category Editor
Off-campus access
Using PhilPapers from home?

Create an account to enable off-campus access through your institution's proxy server.

Monitor this page
Be alerted of all new items appearing on this page. Choose how you want to monitor it:

Email   RSS feed
Editorial team
General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario)
David Chalmers (ANU, NYU)

Area Editors:
David Bourget
Gwen Bradford
Berit Brogaard
Margaret Cameron
David Chalmers
James Chase
Rafael De Clercq
Ezio Di Nucci
Barry Hallen
Hans Halvorson
Jonathan Ichikawa
Michelle Kosch
Øystein Linnebo
JeeLoo Liu
Paul Livingston
Brandon Look
Manolo Martínez
Matthew McGrath
Michiru Nagatsu
Susana Nuccetelli
Gualtiero Piccinini
Giuseppe Primiero
Jack Alan Reynolds
Darrell P. Rowbottom
Aleksandra Samonek
Constantine Sandis
Howard Sankey
Jonathan Schaffer
Thomas Senor
Robin Smith
Daniel Star
Jussi Suikkanen
Lynne Tirrell
Aness Webster

Other editors
Contact us
Learn more about PhilPapers

Home | New books and articles | Bibliographies | Philosophy journals | Discussions | Article Index | About PhilPapers | API | Contact us | Code of conduct

CDP Phiosophy Documentation Center
PhilPapers logo by Andrea Andrews and Meghan Driscoll.
This site uses cookies and Google Analytics (see our terms & conditions for details regarding the privacy implications).

Use of this site is subject to terms & conditions.
All rights reserved by The PhilPapers Foundation

Page generated Fri Mar 22 04:29:49 2019 on pp1