ERP signatures of conscious and unconscious word and letter perception in an inattentional blindness paradigm

Consciousness and Cognition
Kathryn SchelonkaMichael A Pitts

Abstract

A three-phase inattentional blindness paradigm was combined with ERPs. While participants performed a distracter task, line segments in the background formed words or consonant-strings. Nearly half of the participants failed to notice these word-forms and were deemed inattentionally blind. All participants noticed the word-forms in phase 2 of the experiment while they performed the same distracter task. In the final phase, participants performed a task on the word-forms. In all phases, including during inattentional blindness, word-forms elicited distinct ERPs during early latencies (∼200-280ms) suggesting unconscious orthographic processing. A subsequent ERP (∼320-380ms) similar to the visual awareness negativity appeared only when subjects were aware of the word-forms, regardless of the task. Finally, word-forms elicited a P3b (∼400-550ms) only when these stimuli were task-relevant. These results are consistent with previous inattentional blindness studies and help distinguish brain activity associated with pre- and post-perceptual processing from correlates of conscious perception.

Citations

Aug 1, 2018·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Michael A PittsSteven A Hillyard
Aug 22, 2018·Frontiers in Physiology·Brian Key, Deborah Brown
Feb 23, 2020·Behavior Research Methods·Sami BoudelaaManuel Carreiras
Jun 4, 2019·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Muwang YeHong-Jin Sun
Nov 3, 2020·Neuroscience of Consciousness·Leah BanellisDamian Cruse
Jan 19, 2021·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Nathalie Klein SelleGershon Ben-Shakhar
Jun 27, 2021·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Cole DembskiMichael Pitts

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