UNCONSCIOUS SEEING
Aaron Sloman

A partial index of discussion notes is in http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/AREADME.html

Unnoticed qualia

However the demonstration will not work for everyone: some people realise immediately
what they have seen, and not everyone who fails to see it responds to the prompts when
the original presentation is out of sight.

I have been using variants of this experiment in talks on vision for different sorts of
audience since the mid 1980s. It usually works on a subset of the audience, e.g. between
about 30% and 70% -- though I have not kept detailed records.

Alternative: view the demo on Youtube
There are two versions of the presentation: one uses this web site with a lot of textual
material explaining what to do, but having to read the text may interfere with some of the
processes.

So I have created a video version which can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/qKPfy9IufG4
I would suggest trying that before looking at the non-video version presented below. But
if you are unable to view a Youtube video you may find the version below of interest.

How it works

• You will be invited to look at an image containing an English sentence in a rectangular box.

  You should find a familiar announcement in the box.

  Please examine it carefully, to make sure you see just a familiar sentence. If you see
  something wrong, and you are with somebody who sees nothing wrong, please do not say what
  you see. Just let the other person or persons continue with the experiment, without your
  saying anything.

  After looking at the sentence in the box, please close the image because the rest of the
  experiment depends on your not having it in sight.

  ---

• Please look at the test display now (though the Youtube video mentioned above would be better,
  if you can access it -- in which case ignore the rest of this web page).

  After looking at it, please come back here.

  ---

• Click here for the next step.

  ---

• This online tutorial presentation (PDF and slideshare Flash)
  http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/talks/#cons09
  Why the "hard" problem of consciousness is easy and the "easy" problem hard.
  (And how to make progress)

• and this paper
  http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/09.html#906
  Phenomenal and Access Consciousness and the "Hard" Problem:
  A View from the Designer Stance

• Background theory
  For a full explanation of the phenomenon presented here, and many other features of human
  and animal minds, we need to know about the information processing architecture that
  constitutes a mind, which typically involves many virtual machines constituting a single
  complex virtual machine running on layers of virtual machinery ultimately implemented in
  physical and chemical mechanisms. Some of the high level features of a theory about the
  role of virtual machinery, ignored by most philosophers, are summarised in
  this short introduction to "Virtual Machine Functionalism".

• http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/blackmore-zen-consciousness.html
  Some comments on Susan Blackmore's little book "Zen and the Art of Consciousness"
  (Previously published as "Ten Zen Questions").

• This is a small part of the Meta-Morphogenesis project
  http://tinyurl.com/CogMisc/meta-morphogenesis.html

• Some of the processes of mathematical discovery involve similar mechanisms, since such
  discoveries often involve noticing an aspect of what you were previously conscious of, but
  did not notice. Examples, using experiences of triangles can be found in this draft paper:
  Hidden Depths of Triangle Qualia.
  Theorems About Triangles, and Implications for Biological Evolution and AI
  The mechanisms involved seem to be closely related to mechanisms required for perception
  and use of various kinds of affordances (including types not noticed, or discussed, by
  James Gibson). There are more mathematical examples in this discussion of "Toddler Theorems"
  
  For more on the need to generalise Gibson's theory of affordances (and fix broken theories
  about the functions of vision in animals and future robots) see this presentation:
  What's vision for and how does it work?

• This report on a case of blindsight is also relevant

  "Blind Man Sees With Subconscious Eye" by Joe Palca
  NPR, December 23, 2008
  Blind Man Unknowingly Navigates Obstacle Course
  Watch A Video Of The Experiment. (Joe Palca, Kathleen Masterson)
  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98590831&sc=emaf
  "TN has what is known as blind sight, according to de Gelder. Even though the primary part
  of his brain that processes visual information is destroyed, he still has more primitive
  parts of his brain intact, and these are capable of doing some visual processing. After
  all, one of the most basic functions of the visual system is to help an animal avoid
  obstacles or predators. TN still has some visual abilities - he's just not aware he has
  them."

• For more philosophical and logical fun and challenges see Ron Barnette's web site:
  Zeno's Coffeehouse including an online mind-reader partly related to this site.

Installed: 19 Oct 2009
Last updated: 8 Dec 2009; 19 Jan 2010; 17 Jul 2011; 5 Mar 2013; 13 Mar 2013

This work, and everything else on my website, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
If you use or comment on my ideas please include a URL if possible, so that readers can
see the original (or the latest version thereof).
Everything I write is subject to revision as I learn -- so it is usually better to save
links than copies -- which are likely to be out of date.
This web page depends on two others that it links to, and an online image displayed in one of them.

Maintained by Aaron Sloman
School of Computer Science
The University of Birmingham