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Why visual attention and awareness are different
Abstract
Now that the study of consciousness is warmly embraced by cognitive scientists, much confusion seems to arise between the concepts of visual attention and visual awareness. Often, visual awareness is equated to what is in the focus of attention. There are, however, two sets of arguments to separate attention from awareness: a psychological/theoretical one and a neurobiological one. By combining these arguments I present definitions of visual attention and awareness that clearly distinguish between the two, yet explain why attention and awareness are so intricately related. In fact, there seems more overlap between mechanisms of memory and awareness than between those of attention and awareness.
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“When people are unaware of a visual stimulus, they can still sometimes focus processing resources on it. They can direct attention to it (McCormick, 1997; Lamme, 2003; Woodman and Luck, 2003; Ansorge and Heumann, 2006; Tsushima et al., 2006; Kentridge et al., 2008; Hsieh et al., 2011; Norman et al., 2013).”
From The Attention Schema Theory: A Foundation for Engineering Artificial Consciousness (2017) · cites this paper as Lamme, 2003
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lamme, V. A. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Lamme, Victor A.F.
- ORCID
- Lamme, Victor A.F.
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2003-01
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 12-18
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2156281732
- Cited by
- 1,172
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 43 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 86 · 2018: 42 · 2017: 73 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 60 · 2014: 63 · 2013: 62 · 2012: 50
- FWCI
- 3.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Keywords
- visual attention, visual awareness, consciousness
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