On the use of continuous flash suppression for the study of visual processing outside of awareness

The interocular suppression technique termed continuous flash suppression (CFS) has become an immensely popular tool for investigating visual processing outside of awareness. The emerging picture from studies using CFS is that extensive processing of a visual stimulus, including its semantic and aff...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in psychology 2014-07, Vol.5, p.724-724
Main Authors: Yang, Eunice, Brascamp, Jan, Kang, Min-Suk, Blake, Randolph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Binocular Rivalry
continuous flash suppression
interocular suppression
Psychology
unconscious processing
Visual Processing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The interocular suppression technique termed continuous flash suppression (CFS) has become an immensely popular tool for investigating visual processing outside of awareness. The emerging picture from studies using CFS is that extensive processing of a visual stimulus, including its semantic and affective content, occurs despite suppression from awareness of that stimulus by CFS. However, the current implementation of CFS in many studies examining processing outside of awareness has several drawbacks that may be improved upon for future studies using CFS. In this paper, we address some of those shortcomings, particularly ones that affect the assessment of unawareness during CFS, and ones to do with the use of "visible" conditions that are often included as a comparison to a CFS condition. We also discuss potential biases in stimulus processing as a result of spatial attention and feature-selective suppression. We suggest practical guidelines that minimize the effects of those limitations in using CFS to study visual processing outside of awareness.
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00724