Sensitivity vs. awareness curve: A novel model-based analysis to uncover the processes underlying nonconscious perception

Abstract

In this study, we present a novel model-based analysis of the association between awareness and perceptual processing based on a multidimensional version of signal detection theory (general recognition theory, or GRT). The analysis fits a GRT model to behavioral data and uses the estimated model to construct a sensitivity versus awareness (SvA) curve, representing sensitivity in the discrimination task at each value of relative likelihood of awareness. This approach treats awareness as a continuum rather than a dichotomy, but also provides an objective benchmark for low likelihood of awareness. In two experiments, we assessed nonconscious facial expression recognition using SvA curves in a condition in which faces (fearful vs. neutral) were rendered invisible using continuous flash suppression (CFS) for 500 and 700 milliseconds. We predicted and found nonconscious processing of face emotion, in the form of higher than chance-level sensitivity in the area of low likelihood of awareness.