Psychoblog

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wir möchten Sie wieder herzlich zum Forschungskolloquium Experimentelle Psychologie

am Mittwoch, den 12.07.2023

um 14:15 Uhr im GEMI, Raum 1.140

einladen.

Prof. Dr. Markus Kiefer

Universitätsklinikum Ulm, Sektion Kognitive Elektrophysiologie

 spricht über: Attentional sensitization of unconscious cognition: Functional and neural mechanisms

In classical theories of automaticity and attention, unconscious automatic processes are thought to be independent of higher-level attentional influences. However, refined theories assume that the cognitive system has to be configured in a certain way for automatic processes to occur. In our attentional sensitization model, we propose that automatic processing depends on attentional enhancement of task-congruent processing pathways. An unconsciously perceived stimulus is only processed along the neural pathways, which are sensitized by the active attentional set. In order to test these assumptions, the induction task paradigm has been developed: Before masked prime presentation, participants attended in an induction task either to semantic or perceptual stimulus features, which should activate a semantic and perceptual task set, respectively. In line with the attentional sensitization model, unconscious semantic processing is enhanced by a semantic and attenuated by a perceptual task set. In contrast, unconscious visuo-motor processing of shapes and emotional priming of pictures is boosted by a perceptual task set, but abolished by a semantic task set. Functional connectivity analyses of neuroimaging data suggest that attentional control of unconscious semantic processing is established by a temporary and dynamic integration of brain areas into different functional networks depending on the active task set. Differential sensitization of unconscious semantic processing pathways as a function of activated task is not only achieved by executing an induction task, but also by mere presentation of task cues associated with a specific task set without executing a task. Hence, task sets orchestrate the flow of unconscious information in the processing streams to support goal-related interactions with the dynamically changing challenges of the environment. The notion of attentional sensitization of unconscious cognition has also implications for the trial-wise assessment of subjective visual awareness within masked semantic priming experiments.

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Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Prof. Dr. Uwe Mattler