Citation

Hsieh PJ, Colas JT, Kanwisher N. Psychol. Sci. 2011; 22(9): 1220-1226.

Affiliation

Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore. pojang.hsieh@duke-nus.edu.sg

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/0956797611419302

PMID

21852451

PMCID

PMC3264049

Abstract

Visual pop-out occurs when a unique visual target (e.g., a feature singleton) is present in a set of homogeneous distractors. However, the role of visual awareness in this process remains unclear. In the experiments reported here, we showed that even though subjects were not aware of a suppressed pop-out display, their subsequent performance on an orientation-discrimination task was significantly better at the pop-out location than at a control location. These results indicate that conscious visual awareness of a feature singleton is not necessary for it to attract attention. Furthermore, the subliminal pop-out effect disappeared when subjects diverted their attention toward a rapid sequential visual presentation task while presented with the same subliminal pop-out display. These results suggest that top-down attention is necessary for the subliminal pop-out effect and that the cognitive processes underlying attention and awareness are somewhat independent.

Language: en