Attention and Consciousness

Inattentional and Change Blindness Inattentional blindness – When unattended information in the visual (or auditory) world goes unnoticed – Change Blindness when unattended objects change without the viewer noticing – Let’s see some examples

Inattentional and Change Blindness When attention can’t be focused effectively, information gets omitted from awareness One way this occurs is by preventing transients from reflexively orienting attention

Perception and Cognition We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms to provide information to our brains to guide current or future behavior

Perception and Cognition We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms to provide information to our brains to guide current or future behavior Notice there’s no mention of consciousness

Perception and Cognition We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms to provide information to our brains to guide current or future behavior Notice there’s no mention of consciousness Lot’s of information gets processed and used by your brain without you noticing

Perception and Cognition We have elaborate perceptual mechanisms to provide information to our brains to guide current or future behavior Notice there’s no mention of consciousness Lot’s of information gets processed and used by your brain without you noticing Consider an example

Blindsight You move about the world without bumping into things You see where things are and you can reach out and grab them What if I told you that your brain doesn’t really care if you’re aware that you are doing these things!?

Blindsight and the Dorsal Stream Lesions (usually due to stroke) in primary visual cortex cause a region of blindness called a scotoma Identified using perimetry X