Conscious and intentional access to unconscious decision-making module in ambiguous visual perception

Abstract

Increasingly higher levels of information processing contribute to the highest level of visual perception, that of object recognition. An unconscious decision-making event arising at the end of an unconscious inference process acts upon the already processed visual information resolving the ambiguity inherent to such information. In the case of multistable reversible patterns, the ambiguity is never resolved and the perception altemates among different interpretations of the visual information. The perception alternance model is used here to investigate the possibility to access into the decision-making module by means of mental activities applied in a downward direction. A will effort modifies the time patterning of the perception altemance. The will effect is higher if the decisionmaking mechanism is resetted also by the application of subliminal stimuli.