Competition for consciousness among visual events: the psychophysics of reentrant visual processes

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. General Vol. 129; no. 4; p. 481
• Main Authors: Di Lollo, V, Enns, J T, Rensink, R A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.12.2000
• Subjects: Adult; Consciousness; Female; Humans; Male; Mental Processes; Models, Psychological; Neurons; Perceptual Masking - physiology; Visual Perception
• ISSN: 0096-3445
• DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.129.4.481

Advances in neuroscience implicate reentrant signaling as the predominant form of communication between brain areas. This principle was used in a series of masking experiments that defy explanation by feed-forward theories. The masking occurs when a brief display of target plus mask is continued with the mask alone. Two masking processes were found: an early process affected by physical factors such as adapting luminance and a later process affected by attentional factors such as set size. This later process is called masking by object substitution, because it occurs whenever there is a mismatch between the reentrant visual representation and the ongoing lower level activity. Iterative reentrant processing was formalized in a computational model that provides an excellent fit to the data. The model provides a more comprehensive account of all forms of visual masking than do the long-held feed-forward views based on inhibitory contour interactions.