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192Measuring consciousness: relating behavioural and neurophysiological approachesTrends in Cognitive Sciences 12 (8): 314-321. 2008.
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93Optimizing subjective measures of consciousnessConsciousness and Cognition 19 (2): 682-684. 2010.Dienes and Seth (2010) conclude that confidence ratings and post-decision wagering are two comparable and recommendable measures of conscious experience. In a recently submitted paper, we have however found that both methods are problematic and seem less suited to measure consciousness than a direct introspective measure. Here, we discuss the methodology and conclusions put forward by Dienes and Seth, and why we think the two experiments end up with so different recommendations.
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23Deaf hearing: Implicit discrimination of auditory content in a patient with mixed hearing lossPhilosophical Psychology 30 (1-2): 21-43. 2017.We describe a patient LS, profoundly deaf in both ears from birth, with underdeveloped superior temporal gyri. Without hearing aids, LS displays no ability to detect sounds below a fixed threshold of 60 dBs, which classifies him as clinically deaf. Under these no-hearing-aid conditions, when presented with a forced-choice paradigm in which he is asked to consciously respond, he is unable to make above-chance judgments about the presence or location of sounds. However, he is able to make above-ch…Read more
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34Measuring and testing awareness of emotional face expressionsConsciousness and Cognition 22 (3): 806-809. 2013.Comparison of behavioural measures of consciousness has attracted much attention recently. In a recent article, Szczepanowski et al. conclude that confidence ratings predict accuracy better than both the perceptual awareness scale and post-decision wagering when using stimuli with emotional content . Although we find the study interesting, we disagree with the conclusion that CR is superior to PAS because of two methodological issues. First, the conclusion is not based on a formal test. We perfo…Read more
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93Is conscious perception gradual or dichotomous? A comparison of report methodologies during a visual taskConsciousness and Cognition 15 (4): 700-708. 2006.In a recent article, [Sergent, C. & Dehaene, S. . Is consciousness a gradual phenomenon? Evidence for an all-or-none bifurcation during the attentional blink, Psychological Science, 15, 720–729] claim to give experimental support to the thesis that there is a clear transition between conscious and unconscious perception. This idea is opposed to theoretical arguments that we should think of conscious perception as a continuum of clarity, with e.g., fringe conscious states [Mangan, B. . Sensation’…Read more
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48Partial awareness distinguishes between measuring conscious perception and conscious content: Reply to Dienes and SethConsciousness and Cognition 19 (4): 1081-1083. 2010.In their comment on Sandberg, Timmermans, Overgaard, and Cleeremans , Dienes and Seth argue that increased sensitivity of the Perceptual Awareness Scale is a consequence of the scale being less exclusive rather than more exhaustive. According to Dienes and Seth, this is because PAS may measure some conscious content, though not necessarily relevant conscious content, “If one saw a square but was only aware of seeing a flash of something, then one has not consciously seen a square.” In this reply…Read more
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2Visual experience and blindsight: A methodological reviewExperimental Brain Research 209 473-479. 2011.Blindsight is classically defined as residual visual capacity, e.g., to detect and identify visual stimuli, in the total absence of perceptual awareness following lesions to V1. However, whereas most experiments have investigated what blindsight patients can and cannot do, the literature contains several, often contradictory, remarks about remaining visual experience. This review examines closer these remarks as well as experiments that directly approach the nature of possibly spared visual expe…Read more
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26On the encompassing of the behaviour of manBehavioral and Brain Sciences 26 (5): 615-616. 2003.One supposition underlying the Anderson & Lebiere target article is that the maximally broad “encompassing of its subject matter – the behavior of man” is regarded as an unquestioned quality criterion for guiding cognitive research. One might argue for an explicit specification of the limitations of a given paradigm, rather than extending it to apply to as many domains as possible
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53Cognitive and non-cognitive conceptions of consciousnessTrends in Cognitive Sciences 16 (3): 137. 2012.
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111Measuring consciousness: Is one measure better than the other?Consciousness and Cognition 19 (4): 1069-1078. 2010.What is the best way of assessing the extent to which people are aware of a stimulus? Here, using a masked visual identification task, we compared three measures of subjective awareness: The Perceptual Awareness Scale , through which participants are asked to rate the clarity of their visual experience; confidence ratings , through which participants express their confidence in their identification decisions, and Post-decision wagering , in which participants place a monetary wager on their deci…Read more
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32Special Issue on the Return of Subjectivity Edited by Dan ZahaviPhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 3 399-400. 2004.
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52Introspection distinct from first-order experiencesJournal of Consciousness Studies 11 (7-8): 11--7. 2004.As is the case with other concepts about mental affairs, the concept of introspection has many different interpretations. Some seem to consider introspecting a perceptive act and others see it as a thinking activity . For the present purpose, we will claim it as a common understanding in all such theories that introspection presupposes consciousness . States of consciousness, broadly discussed in the philosophical and empirical literature as first order states of consciousness, are states in whi…Read more
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9Behavioral Methods in Consciousness Research (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2015.'Behavioral Methods in Consciousness Research' is the first book of its kind, providing an overview of methods and approaches for studying consciousness. The chapters are written by leading researchers and experts who describe the methods they actually use in their own studies, along with their pitfalls, problems, and difficulties.
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53The time between intention and action affects the experience of actionFrontiers in Human Neuroscience 9. 2015.
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185Introspection and subliminal perceptionPhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 3 (1): 1-23. 2004.Subliminal perception (SP) is today considered a well-supported theory stating that perception can occur without conscious awareness and have a significant impact on later behaviour and thought. In this article, we first present and discuss different approaches to the study of SP. In doing this, we claim that most approaches are based on a dichotomic measure of awareness. Drawing upon recent advances and discussions in the study of introspection and phenomenological psychology, we argue for both…Read more
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116On the naturalizing of phenomenologyPhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 3 (4): 365-79. 2004.In the attempt to construct a scientific approach to consciousness, it has been proposed that transcendental phenomenology or phenomenological psychology be introduced into the framework of cognitive neuroscience. In this article, the consequences of such an approach in terms of basic assumptions, methods for the collection of data, and evaluation of the collected data are discussed. Especially, the proposed notions of mutual constraint and the second perso are discussed. It is concluded that ev…Read more
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184Confounding factors in contrastive analysisSynthese 141 (2): 217-31. 2004.Several authors within psychology, neuroscience and philosophy take for granted that standard empirical research techniques are applicable when studying consciousness. In this article, it is discussed whether one of the key methods in cognitive neuroscience – the contrastive analysis – suffers from any serious confounding when applied to the field of consciousness studies; that is to say, if there are any systematic difficulties when studying consciousness with this method that make the result…Read more
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44An integrative view on consciousness and introspectionReview of Philosophy and Psychology 8 (1): 129-141. 2017.The relation between first and higher order mental states is currently unknown. In particular, the relation between conscious experience and introspection is difficult as the same methods are used to investigate them. In order to make progress in the scientific understanding of consciousness, introspection or both, it is fundamental to understand whether their relation is serial or reciprocal. Although the amount of empirical evidence directly addressing this question is sparse, the little that …Read more
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Aalborg UniversityRegular Faculty
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |