Unconscious Memory Representations In Perception

Perceptual experience emerges from neural computations. "Unconscious Memory Representations in Perception "focuses on the role of implicit (non-conscious) memories in processing sensory information. Making sense of the wealth of information arriving at our senses requires implicit memories, which represent environmental regularities, contingencies of the sensory input, as well as general contextual knowledge. Recent findings and theories in cognitive and computational neuroscience provided new insights into the structure and contents of implicit memory representations. The chapters of this book examine implicit memories both in relatively simple situations, such as perceiving auditory and visual objects, as well as in high?level cognitive functions, such as speech and music perception and aesthetic experience. By nature, implicit memories cannot be directly studied with behavioral methods. Therefore, a large part of the evidence reviewed was obtained in neuroscientific studies. Readers with limited experience in neuroscience will find information about the most commonly used techniques in the appendix of this volume. (Series B)

Integrates data from various research areas concerned with the effects of unconscious perception and the preconscious antecedents of subjective experience. Discusses the possible nature and origin of preconscious processes, the evidence for unconscious perception, and the effects of unperceived stimuli on perception, verbal behavior, and memory. Examines the theory that cognitive processes evolved for the gratification of need.

"In Perception: First Form of Mind, Tyler Burge develops an understanding of the most primitive type of representational mind: perception. Focusing on its form, function, and underlying capacities, as indicated in the sciences of perception, Burge provides an account of the representational content and formal representational structure of perceptual states, and develops a formal semantics for them. The account is elaborated by an explanation of how the representational form is embedded in an iconic format. These structures are then situated in current theoretical accounts of the processing of perceptual representations, with an emphasis on the formation of perceptual categorizations. An exploration of the relationship between perception and other primitive capacities-conation, attention, memory, anticipation, affect, learning, and imagining-clarifies the distinction between perceiving, with its associated capacities, and thinking, with its associated capacities. Drawing on a broad range of historical and contemporary research, rather than relying on introspection or ordinary talk about perception, Perception: First Form of Mind is a scientifically rigorous and agenda-setting work in the philosophy of perception and the philosophy of science"--

"What is the difference between seeing and thinking? Is the border between seeing and thinking a joint in nature in the sense of a fundamental explanatory difference? Is it a difference of degree? Does thinking affect seeing, i.e. is seeing "cognitively penetrable"? Are we aware of faces, causation, numerosity and other "high-level" properties or only of the colors, shapes and textures that-according to the advocate of high level perception--are the basis on which we see them? Is perception conceptual and propositional? Is perception iconic or more akin to language in being discursive? Is seeing singular? Which is more fundamental, visual attribution or visual discrimination? Is all seeing seeing-as? What is the difference between the format and content of perception and do perception and cognition have different formats? Is perception probabilistic and if so, why are we not normally aware of this probabilistic nature of perception? Are the basic features of mind known as "core cognition" a third category in between perception and cognition? Are there perceptual categories that are not concepts? Where does consciousness fit in with regard to the difference between seeing and thinking? Do the lessons from seeing apply to other senses? These are the questions I will be exploring in this book. I will be exploring them not mainly by appeals to "intuitions" as is common in philosophy of perception but by appeal to empirical evidence, including experiments in neuroscience and psychology"--

Memory traces can become labile when retrieved. This has intrigued not only neuroscientists, psychologists, and cognitive scientists but also clinicians who work with memories to treat psychopathologies, such as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. Psychotherapists and psychoanalysts question whether the treatments based on re-evoking memories engage reconsolidation and how treatments may work and be effective with reconsolidation processes. However, reconsolidation may not easily occur in older or very strong, consolidated memories, which are, in fact, those deeply rooted in most maladaptive behaviors, and most animal reconsolidation studies have been done on memories that are only days old. Hence, the questions deepen into many more complex layers, asking the following: How are memories formed and retrieved and in part become unconscious? How does retrieval in a therapeutic setting change those traces? Here, we propose some hypotheses based on neuroscientific knowledge to begin explaining the bases of Freudian unconscious and speculate on how memory traces and Freudian unconscious intersect.

Vision and memory are two of the most intensively studied topics in psychology and neuroscience. The present book concerns the interaction between vision and memory: How do we remember what we see? And how does our memory for the visual world influence subsequent perception and action? topics in psychology and neuroscience, and the intersection etween them--visual memory--is emerging as a fertile ground for research. Certain memory systems appear to specialize in This book provides a state-of-the-art account of visual memory systems. Each chapter is written by an internationally renowned researcher, who has made seminal contributions to the topic. The chapters are comprehensive, providing both a broad overview of each topic and a summary of the latest research. They also present new perspectives that advance our theoretical understanding of visual memory and suggest directions for future research. After an introductory overview by the editors, chapters address visual sensory memory (iconic memory), visual short-term memory, and the relationship between visual memory and eye movements. Visual long-term memory is then reviewed from several different perspectives, including memory for natural scenes, the relationship between visual memory and object recognition, and associative learning. The final chapters discuss the neural mechanisms of visual memory and neuropsychological deficits in visual memory. This book is a comprehensive guide to visual memory research that will be a valuable resource for both students and professionals.

During the past decade, evidence of dissociation between conscious and nonconscious information processing has emerged from the study of normal subjects and brain damaged patients. The thirty-five original contributions in this book cover the latest work on this important topic. During the past decade, evidence of dissociation between conscious and nonconscious information processing has emerged from the study of normal subjects and brain damaged patients. The thirty-five original contributions in this book cover the latest work on this important topic across such traditional areas of research as vision, face recognition, spatial attention, control processes, semantic memory, episodic memory, and learning. Each section is introduced by an overview chapter that presents and evaluates the available empirical evidence in a given area and is followed by several experimental papers. The book opens with the Association Lecture, by George Mandler, "On Remembering without Really Trying: Hypermnesia, Incubation, and Mind Popping."

Examining the current state of the research in perception stressing contributions in visual information processing, this volume provides an original and timely account of recent results obtained in this and other related areas of cognitive psychology. The scope of the book is intended to be broad, featuring state-of-the-art contributions from a number of outstanding researchers from different parts of the world -- the United States, Europe, and Australia. The intention is to update areas of considerable theoretical implications and active experimental investigation in this broad field called the "psychology of perception." This volume's main purpose is to highlight, from a cognitive position, a selected number of important theoretical and empirical topics which deal with critical issues in perception and other high level, related cognitive processes such as attention, mental representation, memory, word naming and semantic categorization. The studies reported were designed to answer many far-reaching questions including: * Is the global precedence effect due to low or high level processing? * Can veridical and illusory perception be explained by the same theory? * What is the relationship between attention and perception? * Is perception "direct" or an inferential process? * What mechanisms are involved in picture and word naming and categorization? * How can word and picture processing be modeled? The answers to these questions seek to unite theoretical perspectives on very important areas of cognitive psychology such as attention, perception, representation of visual objects and words, and human memory.