Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T21:01:13.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Makes Behavioral Measures of Consciousness Subjective and Direct?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2022

Jakub Jonkisz
Jakub Jonkisz*
Affiliation:
Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland Email: kjonkisz@wp.pl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article addresses two issues: the distinction between objective and subjective measures and the directness of such measures. It is argued that the distinction is unambiguous only when based on a methodological criterion (i.e., the threshold utilized by the measures) rather than a semantic one (i.e., their referring either to the world or to the participant’s inner states). Different senses of directness are discussed: metaphysical (which seems to rest on a category error), methodological (the only unambiguously defined one, though relating “directly” to performance rather than awareness), semantic (which appears gradable), and causal.

Type
Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 89 , Issue 4 , October 2022 , pp. 683 - 700
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anzulewicz, Anna, Asanowicz, Dariusz, Windey, Bert, Paulewicz, Borysław, Wierzchoń, Michał, and Cleeremans, Axel. 2015. “Does Level of Processing Affect the Transition from Unconscious to Conscious Perception?” Consciousness and Cognition 36:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.05.00 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bayne, Tim, Hohwy, Jakob, and Owen, Adrian M.. 2016. “Are There Levels of Consciousness?” Trends in Cognitive Science 20 (6):405–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.03.009 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Block, Ned, 1995. “On Confusion about a Function of Consciousness.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (2):227–87. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00038188 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, David. 1995. “Facing up to the Problem of Consciousness.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3):200–19.Google Scholar
Chalmers, David. 1996. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cheesman, Jim, and Merikle, Philip M.. 1984. “Priming with and without Awareness.” Perception and Psychophysics 36:387–95.Google Scholar
Dienes, Zoltán. 2008. “Subjective Measures of Unconscious Knowledge.” Progress in Brain Research 168:49–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(07)68005-4 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dienes, Zoltán, Altmann, Gerry T. M., Kwan, Liam, and Goode, Alastair. 1995. “Unconscious Knowledge of Artificial Grammars Is Applied Strategically.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 21 (5):1322–38.Google Scholar
Edelman, Gerald M. 2003. “Naturalizing Consciousness: A Theoretical Framework.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100 (9):5520–24. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0931349100 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edelman, Gerald M., Gally, Joseph A., and Baars, Bernard J.. 2011. “Biology of Consciousness.” Frontiers in Psychology 2:4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00004 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fu, Qiufang, Fu, Xiaolan, and Dienes, Zoltán. 2008. “Implicit Sequence Learning and Conscious Awareness.” Consciousness and Cognition 17 (1):185–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gaillard, Vinciane, Vandenberghe, Muriel, Destrebecqz, Arnaud, and Cleeremans, Axel. 2006. “First- and Third-Person Approaches in Implicit Learning Research.” Consciousness and Cognition 15 (4):709–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irvine, Elizabeth. 2013. “Measures of Consciousness.” Philosophy Compass 8 (2):285–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12016 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irvine, Elizabeth. 2019. “Developing Dark Pessimism towards the Justificatory Role of Introspective Reports.” Erkenntnis 86:1319–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-019-00156-9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Frank. 1982. “Epiphenomenal Qualia.” Philosophical Quarterly 32 (127):127–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jimenez, Mikel, Hinojosa, José Antonio, and Montoro, Pedro R.. 2020. “Visual Awareness and the Levels of Processing Hypothesis: A Critical Review.” Consciousness and Cognition 85:103022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.103022 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jonkisz, Jakub. 2012. “Consciousness: A Four-Fold Taxonomy.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 19:55–82.Google Scholar
Jonkisz, Jakub. 2015. “Consciousness: Individuated Information in Action.” Frontiers in Psychology 6:1035. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01035 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jonkisz, Jakub. 2016. “Subjectivity: A Case of Biological Individuation and an Adaptive Response to Informational Overflow.” Frontiers in Psychology 7:1206. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01206 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonkisz, Jakub, Wierzchoń, Michał, and Binder, Marek. 2017. “Four-Dimensional Graded Consciousness.” Frontiers in Psychology 8:420. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00420 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, Colin, and Hohwy, Jakob. 2015. “Variability, Convergence, and Dimensions of Consciousness.” In Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research, edited by Overgaard, Morten, 249–63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamme, Victor A. F., Supèr, Hans, Landman, Rogier, Roelfsema, Pieter R., and Spekreijse, Henk. 2000. “The Role of Primary Visual Cortex (V1) in Visual Awareness.” Vision Research 40:1507–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989(99)00243-6 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyyra, Pessi. 2019. “Semantics for Subjective Measures of Perceptual Experience.” Frontiers in Psychology 10:1980. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macmillan, Neil A., and Creelman, C. Douglas. 1991. Detection Theory: A User’s Guide. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maniscalco, Brian, and Lau, Hakwan C.. 2012. “A Signal Detection Theoretic Approach for Estimating Metacognitive Sensitivity from Confidence Ratings.” Consciousness and Cognition 21 (1):422–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maniscalco, Brian, and Lau, Hakwan C.. 2014. “Signal Detection Theory Analysis of Type 1 and Type 2 Data: Meta-d’, Response Specific Meta-d’, and the Unequal Variance SDT Model.” In The Cognitive Neuroscience of Metacognition, edited by Fleming, Stephen M. and Frith, Christopher D., 25–66. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinn, Colin. 1989. “Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?” Mind 98 (391):349–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michel, Michel. 2019. “The Mismeasure of Consciousness: A Problem of Coordination for the Perceptual Awareness Scale.” Philosophy of Science 86 (5):1239–49. https://doi.org/10.1086/705509 Google Scholar
Morin, Alain. 2006. “Levels of Consciousness and Self-Awareness.” Consciousness and Cognition 15 (2):358–371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.09.006 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Northoff, Georg, and Musholt, Kristina. 2006. “How Can Searle Avoid Property Dualism? Epistemic-Ontological Inference and Autoepistemic Limitation.” Philosophical Psychology 19 (5):1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasquali, Antoine, Timmermans, Bert, and Cleeremans, Axel. 2010. “Know Thyself: Metacognitive Networks and Measures of Consciousness.” Cognition 117 (2):182–90. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.08.010 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Persaud, Navindra, McLeod, Peter, and Cowey, Alan. 2007. “Post-Decision Wagering Objectively Measures Awareness.” Nature Neuroscience 10:257–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Persuh, Marjan. 2018. “Measuring Perceptual Consciousness.” Frontiers in Psychology 8:2320. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02320 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, Megan A. K., Lau, Hakwan. 2015. “Human Observers Have Optimal Introspective Access to Perceptual Processes Even for Visually Masked Stimuli.” Elife: e09651. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, Ian. 2016. “Consciousness and Criterion: On Block’s Case for Unconscious Seeing.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 93 (2):419–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12224 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pigliucci, Massimo. 2013. “What Hard Problem?” Philosophy Now 99:25.Google Scholar
Ramsøy, Thomas Z., and Overgaard, Morten. 2004. “Introspection and Subliminal Perception.” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 3:1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reingold, Eyal M., and Merikle, Philip M.. 1988. “Using Direct and Indirect Measures to Study Perception without Awareness.” Perception and Psychophysics 44 (6):563–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sandberg, Kristian, Timmermans, Bert, Overgaard, Morten, and Cleeremans, Axel. 2010. “Measuring Consciousness: Is One Measure Better Than the Other?” Consciousness and Cognition 19 (4):1069–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2009.12.013 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Searle, John R. 2000. “Consciousness.” Annual Review of Neuroscience 23:557–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seth, Anil K. 2008a. “Post-Decision Wagering Measures Metacognitive Content, Not Sensory Consciousness.” Consciousness and Cognition 17 (3):981–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2007.05.008 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seth, Anil K. 2008b. “Theories and Measures of Consciousness Develop Together.” Consciousness and Cognition 17 (3):986–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2007.08.004 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seth, Anil K., Edelman, David B., and Baars, Bernard J.. 2005. “Let’s Not Forget about Sensory Consciousness.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27 (4):601–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spillmann, L. , and Werner, J. S., eds. 2012. Visual Perception: The Neurophysiological Foundations. San Diego: Academic Press Inc.Google Scholar
Timmermans, B., and Cleeremans, A.. 2015. “How Can We Measure Awareness? An Overview of Current Methods.” In Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research, edited by Overgaard, Morten, 21–46. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688890.003.0003 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, Michael. 2014. “Transparency, Qualia Realism and Representationalism.” Philosophical Studies 170 (1):39–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-013-0177-8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierzchoń, Michał, Anzulewicz, Anna, Hobot, Justyna, Paulewicz, Borysław, and Sackur, Jérôme. 2019. “In Search of the Optimal Measure of Awareness: Discrete or Continuous?” Consciousness and Cognition 75:102798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2019.102798 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wierzchoń, Michał, Paulewicz, Borysław, Asanowicz, Dariusz, Timmermans, Bert, and Cleeremans, Axel. 2014. “Different Subjective Awareness Measures Demonstrate the Influence of Visual Identification on Perceptual Awareness Ratings.” Consciousness and Cognition 27:109–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.04.009 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Windey, Bert, Gevers, Wim, and Cleeremans, Axel. 2013. “Subjective Visibility Depends on Level of Processing.” Cognition 129 (2):404–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.07.012 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed