Toward a definition of awareness

Abstract

Two different current definitions of awareness are contrasted. One definition, used in recent masked-prime studies, is objective and equates awareness with the ability to make forced-choice decisions above a chance level of performance. The second definition, proposed by Henley (1984), is subjective and simply equates awareness with self-reports indicating that an observer “consciously sees” a stimulus. It is concluded that a better objective measure of awareness is needed to distinguish the subjective states of “seeing” and “not seeing” a stimulus. © 1984, The psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.