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Crowding, attention and consciousness: In support of the inference hypothesis
Author(s) -
Taylor Henry,
Sayim Bilge
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/mila.12169
Subject(s) - inference , consciousness , crowding , perception , phenomenon , interpretation (philosophy) , psychology , cognitive psychology , identity (music) , social psychology , cognition , empirical evidence , object (grammar) , epistemology , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , programming language , aesthetics
One of the most important topics in current work on consciousness is what relationship it has to attention. Recently, one of the focuses of this debate has been on the phenomenon of identity crowding. Ned Block has claimed that identity crowding involves conscious perception of an object that we are unable to pay attention to. In this article, we draw upon a range of empirical findings to argue against Block's interpretation of the data. We also argue that current empirical evidence strongly supports an interpretation of the data that emphasises cognitive inference over conscious perception.