Are we underestimating the richness of visual experience?

Andrew M. Haun, Giulio Tononi, Christof Koch, Naotsugu Tsuchiya

Research output: Contribution to journalComment / DebateOtherpeer-review

Abstract

It has been argued that the bandwidth of perceptual experience is low—that the richness of experience is illusory and that the amount of visual information observers can perceive and remember is extremely limited. However, the evidence suggests that this postulated poverty of experiential content is illusory and that visual phenomenology is immensely rich. To properly estimate perceptual content, experimentalists must move beyond the limitations of binary alternative-forced choice procedures and analyze reports of experience more broadly. This will open our eyes to the true richness of experience and to its neuronal substrates.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages4
JournalNeuroscience of Consciousness
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Feb 2017

Keywords

  • contents of consciousness
  • psychophysics
  • visual perception

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