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Colloquium credits

Presentation Master's Thesis - Yu Qing - Brain & Cognition

Colloquium credits

Presentation Master's Thesis - Yu Qing - Brain & Cognition

Last modified on 19-10-2024 16:08
Advancing Research on Unconscious Processing: Evidence of Basic Visual Unconscious Processing through a Revised Methodological Framework
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Start date
18-07-2024 10:30
End date
18-07-2024 11:30
Location

Roeterseilandcampus, Building L, Street: Nieuwe Achtergracht 129-B, Room: L0.08

The existence and extent of unconscious processing remain highly debated within psychological research. Recent studies have highlighted statistical and methodological flaws in traditional frameworks of unconscious processing, such as low statistical power, post-hoc data selection, overreliance on null hypothesis significance testing, and improper comparison of processing and awareness metrics. This study aims to address these concerns by using a revised framework to investigate basic visual unconscious processing. The hypothesis posited that unconscious processing of basic visual features could be demonstrated using this revised framework. It was expected that participants' ability to process stimuli would exceed their awareness of the stimuli. Participants (N = 63) performed a stimulus discrimination task, distinguishing whether a masked target stimulus was a square or a diamond. During the task, electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was then used to classify the EEG data to determine whether a square or a diamond was presented. The results showed that the processing metric (classifier performance) outperformed the awareness metric, supporting the hypothesis of unconscious processing of basic shapes. Implications and limitations of this study will be discussed.